ICPC 2023
Mon 15 - Tue 16 May 2023 Melbourne, Australia
co-located with ICSE 2023

Researchers conducting studies on programming tools often make use of maintenance tasks. The complexity of these tasks can significantly influence how participants behave. At the same time, the complexity of tasks is difficult to pinpoint due to the many sources of complexity for maintenance tasks. As a result, researchers may struggle to deliberately decide in which regard their tasks should be complex and in which regard they should be simple.

To help researchers deliberately influence task complexity, we discuss different factors of task complexity. We draw these factors from 23 selected and 39 surveyed studies on programming tools. We arrange the factors according to a task complexity model from ergonomics research that we adapt for maintenance tasks. We illustrate the application of the factors through an example critique of a task design. In the end, task complexity might always be too complex to be fully controlled. Nevertheless, we hope that our discussion helps other researchers to decide in which dimensions their tasks are complex and in which dimensions they want to keep them simple.

Tue 16 May

Displayed time zone: Hobart change

13:45 - 15:15
Programming Languages, Types, and ComplexityDiscussion / Research / Replications and Negative Results (RENE) / Journal First at Meeting Room 106
Chair(s): Vittoria Nardone
13:45
9m
Full-paper
How Well Static Type Checkers Work with Gradual Typing? A Case Study on Python
Research
Wenjie Xu Nanjing University, Lin Chen Nanjing University, Chenghao Su Nanjing University, Yimeng Guo Nanjing University, Yanhui Li Nanjing University, Yuming Zhou Nanjing University, Baowen Xu Nanjing University
13:54
9m
Full-paper
Too Simple? Notions of Task Complexity used in Maintenance-based Studies of Programming Tools
Research
Patrick Rein University of Potsdam; Hasso Plattner Institute, Tom Beckmann Hasso Plattner Institute, Eva Krebs Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI), University of Potsdam, Germany, Toni Mattis University of Potsdam; Hasso Plattner Institute, Robert Hirschfeld University of Potsdam; Hasso Plattner Institute
14:03
9m
Full-paper
Path Complexity Predicts Code Comprehension Effort
Research
Sofiane Dissem Harvey Mudd College, Eli Pregerson Harvey Mudd College, Adi Bhargava Harvey Mudd College, Josh Cordova Harvey Mudd College, Lucas Bang Harvey Mudd College
14:12
5m
Short-paper
Revisiting Deep Learning for Variable Type Recovery
Replications and Negative Results (RENE)
Kevin Cao Vanderbilt University, Kevin Leach Vanderbilt University
Pre-print
14:17
9m
Talk
Programming language implementations for context-oriented self-adaptive systems
Journal First
Nicolás Cardozo Universidad de los Andes, Kim Mens Université catholique de Louvain, ICTEAM institute, Belgium
Link to publication DOI Media Attached
14:26
9m
Full-paper
Improving Code Search with Multi-Modal Momentum Contrastive Learning
Research
Zejian Shi Fudan University, Yun Xiong Fudan University, Yao Zhang Fudan University, Zhijie Jiang National University of Defense Technology, Jinjing Zhao National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Information System Security, Lei Wang National University of Defense Technology, Shanshan Li National University of Defense Technology
Pre-print
14:35
9m
Full-paper
Revisiting Lightweight Compiler Provenance Recovery on ARM Binaries
Replications and Negative Results (RENE)
Jason Kim Georgia Tech, Daniel Genkin Georgia Tech, Kevin Leach Vanderbilt University
Pre-print
14:44
31m
Panel
Discussion 7
Discussion