research-article

NCQ: Code Reuse Support for Node.js Developers

Authors:

Marcelo d'Amorim,

Christoph TreudeAuthors Info & Claims

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Volume 49, Issue 5

Pages 3205 - 3225

https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2023.3248113

Published: 01 May 2023 Publication History

Abstract

Code reuse is an important part of software development. The adoption of code reuse practices is especially common among Node.js developers. The Node.js package manager, NPM, indexes over 1 Million packages and developers often seek out packages to solve programming tasks. Due to the vast number of packages, selecting the right package is difficult and time consuming. With the goal of improving productivity of developers that heavily reuse code through third-party packages, we present <italic>Node Code Query</italic> (NCQ), a Read-Eval-Print-Loop environment that allows developers to 1) search for NPM packages using natural language queries, 2) search for code snippets related to those packages, 3) automatically correct errors in these code snippets, 4) quickly setup new environments for testing those snippets, and 5) transition between search and editing modes. In two user studies with a total of 20 participants, we find that participants begin programming faster and conclude tasks faster with NCQ than with baseline approaches, and that they like, among other features, the search for code snippets and packages. Our results suggest that NCQ makes Node.js developers more efficient in reusing code.

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Cited By

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Zhang TLu YYu YMao XZhang YZhao Y(2024)How Do Developers Adapt Code Snippets to Their Contexts? An Empirical Study of Context-Based Code Snippet AdaptationsIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2024.339551950:11(2712-2731)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2024.3395519
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cover image IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering Volume 49, Issue 5

May 2023

312 pages

ISSN:0098-5589

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0098-5589 © 2023 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

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Published: 01 May 2023

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Cited By

Hayet IScott Ad'Amorim MChristakis MPradel M(2024)Feedback-Directed Partial ExecutionProceedings of the 33rd ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis10.1145/3650212.3680320(781-793)Online publication date: 11-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3650212.3680320
Zid CZampetti FAntoniol GDi Penta MRoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey M(2024)A Study on the Pythonic Functional Constructs' UnderstandabilityProceedings of the IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/3597503.3639211(1-13)Online publication date: 20-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3597503.3639211
Zhang TLu YYu YMao XZhang YZhao Y(2024)How Do Developers Adapt Code Snippets to Their Contexts? An Empirical Study of Context-Based Code Snippet AdaptationsIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2024.339551950:11(2712-2731)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2024.3395519
Serafini RGutfleisch MHorstmann SNaiakshina AKelley PKapadia A(2023)On the recruitment of company developers for security studies: results from a qualitative interview studyProceedings of the Nineteenth USENIX Conference on Usable Privacy and Security10.5555/3632186.3632204(321-340)Online publication date: 7-Aug-2023
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