Code Readability in the Age of Large Language Models: An Industrial Case Study from Atlassian
Software engineers spend a significant amount of time reading code during the software development process. This trend is amplified by the emergence of large language models (LLMs) that automatically generate code. However, little is known about the readability of the LLM-generated code and whether it is still important from practitioners’ perspectives in this new era. In this paper, we conduct a survey to explore the practitioners’ perspectives on code readability in the age of LLMs and investigate the readability of our LLM-based software development agents framework, HULA, by comparing its generated code with human-written code in real-world scenarios. Overall, the findings underscore that (1) readability remains a critical aspect of software development; (2) the readability of our LLM-generated code is comparable to human-written code, fostering the establishment of appropriate trust and driving the broad adoption of our LLM-powered software development platform.
Thu 11 SepDisplayed time zone: Auckland, Wellington change
13:30 - 15:00 | Session 10 - Code Quality 2Research Papers Track / Industry Track / Registered Reports at Case Room 2 260-057 Chair(s): Judith Perera Fuchs University of Canterbury, New Zealand | ||
13:30 15m | ADPP: Automated Data-centric Program Partitioning Research Papers Track Xuming Jin College of Computer Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Hao Han College of Computer Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics | ||
13:45 15m | Roseau: Fast, Accurate, Source-based Breaking Change Analysis in Java Research Papers Track Corentin Latappy Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, Bordeaux INP, LaBRI, UMR 5800, Promyze, Thomas Degueule CNRS, Jean-Rémy Falleri Univ. Bordeaux, Bordeaux INP, CNRS, LaBRI, UMR5800, F-33400 Talence, France, Romain Robbes CNRS, LaBRI, University of Bordeaux, Lina Ochoa Eindhoven University of Technology Pre-print | ||
14:00 15m | An Efficient Android App Debloating Approach Based on Multi-layer Dependence Graph Research Papers Track Hengqin Yang Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jiwei Yan Institute of Software at Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jun Yan Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jian Zhang Institute of Software at Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bin Liang Renmin University of China, China | ||
14:15 15m | Combining Insights from Multiple Tools to Manage Technical Debt in Industrial C# Projects Industry Track Simeon Tverdal SINTEF Digital, Phu Nguyen SINTEF, Arda Goknil SINTEF Digital, Antonio Martini University of Oslo, Norway, Merve Astekin SINTEF, Mili Orucevic Visma, Maren Maritsdatter Kruke Visma software international AS, Håvard Stranden AKVA group | ||
14:30 15m | Code Readability in the Age of Large Language Models: An Industrial Case Study from Atlassian Industry Track Wannita Takerngsaksiri Monash University, Kla Tantithamthavorn Monash University and Atlassian, Michael Fu The University of Melbourne, Jirat Pasuksmit Atlassian, Kun Chen Atlassian, Ming Wu Atlassian | ||
14:45 10m | How Do Code Smells Affect Skill Growth in Scratch Novice Programmers? Registered Reports Ricardo Hidalgo Aragón Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Gregorio Robles Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Pre-print |