Article

An Ethnographic Study of Copy and Paste Programming Practices in OOPL

Authors:

Miryung Kim,

Lawrence Bergman,

Tessa Lau,

David NotkinAuthors Info & Claims

ISESE '04: Proceedings of the 2004 International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering

Pages 83 - 92

Published: 19 August 2004 Publication History

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Abstract

Although programmers frequently copy and paste code when they develop software, implications of common copy and paste (C&P) usage patterns have not been studied previously. We have conducted an ethnographic study in order to understand programmers' C&P programming practices and discover opportunities to assist common C&P usage patterns. We observed programmers using an instrumented Eclipse IDE and then analyzed why and how they use C&P operations. Based on our analysis, we constructed a taxonomy of C&P usage patterns. This paper presents our taxonomy of C&P usage patterns and discusses our insights with examples drawn from our observations. From our insights, we propose a set of tools that both can reduce software maintenance problems incurred by C&P and can better support the intents of commonly used C&P scenarios.

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Mikolajczyk KBown OFerguson S(2023)A Study of Creative Development with an IoT-based Audiovisual System: Creative Strategies and Impacts for System DesignProceedings of the 15th Conference on Creativity and Cognition10.1145/3591196.3593057(139-149)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3591196.3593057
Meng MSteinhardt SSchubert A(2020)Optimizing API DocumentationProceedings of the 38th ACM International Conference on Design of Communication10.1145/3380851.3416759(1-11)Online publication date: 3-Oct-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3380851.3416759
Meng MSteinhardt SSchubert A(2019)How developers use API documentationCommunication Design Quarterly10.1145/3358931.33589377:2(40-49)Online publication date: 26-Aug-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3358931.3358937
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Index Terms

An Ethnographic Study of Copy and Paste Programming Practices in OOPL
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Designing software
      1. Software implementation planning
        Software design techniques
    2. Software development techniques
  2. Software notations and tools
    1. Development frameworks and environments
      1. Integrated and visual development environments
    2. General programming languages
      1. Language features

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Published In

ISESE '04: Proceedings of the 2004 International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering

August 2004

256 pages

ISBN:0769521657

Publisher

IEEE Computer Society

United States

Publication History

Published: 19 August 2004

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Mikolajczyk KBown OFerguson S(2023)A Study of Creative Development with an IoT-based Audiovisual System: Creative Strategies and Impacts for System DesignProceedings of the 15th Conference on Creativity and Cognition10.1145/3591196.3593057(139-149)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3591196.3593057
Meng MSteinhardt SSchubert A(2020)Optimizing API DocumentationProceedings of the 38th ACM International Conference on Design of Communication10.1145/3380851.3416759(1-11)Online publication date: 3-Oct-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3380851.3416759
Meng MSteinhardt SSchubert A(2019)How developers use API documentationCommunication Design Quarterly10.1145/3358931.33589377:2(40-49)Online publication date: 26-Aug-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3358931.3358937
Zhang HHuang XZhou XHuang HBabar MDumas MPfahl DApel SRusso A(2019)Ethnographic research in software engineering: a critical review and checklistProceedings of the 2019 27th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering10.1145/3338906.3338976(659-670)Online publication date: 12-Aug-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3338906.3338976
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Thongtanunam PShang WHassan A(2019)Will this clone be short-lived? Towards a better understanding of the characteristics of short-lived clonesEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-018-9645-224:2(937-972)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2019
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Meloca RPinto GBaiser LMattos MPolato IWiese IGerman DZaidman AKamei YHill E(2018)Understanding the usage, impact, and adoption of non-OSI approved licensesProceedings of the 15th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories10.1145/3196398.3196427(270-280)Online publication date: 28-May-2018
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Rosenblatt LCarrington PHara KBigham J(2018)Vocal Programming for People with Upper-Body Motor ImpairmentsProceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference10.1145/3192714.3192821(1-10)Online publication date: 23-Apr-2018
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Lu YChaudhuri SJermaine CMelski DChaudron MCrnkovic IChechik MHarman M(2018)Program splicingProceedings of the 40th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/3180155.3180190(338-349)Online publication date: 27-May-2018
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