VL/HCC 2022
Mon 12 - Fri 16 September 2022 Rome, Italy

Block-based programming environments, such as Scratch and Snap!, engage users to create programming artifacts such as games and stories, and share them in an online community. Many Snap! users start programming by reusing and modifying an example project, but encounter many barriers when searching and identifying the relevant parts of the program to learn and reuse. We present Pinpoint, a system that helps Snap! programmers understand and reuse an existing program by isolating the code responsible for specific events during program execution. Specifically, a user can record an execution of the program (including user inputs and graphical output), replay the output, and select a specific time interval where the event of interest occurred, to view code that is relevant to this event. We conducted a small-scale user study to compare users’ program comprehension experience with and without Pinpoint, and found suggestive evidence that Pinpoint helps users understand and reuse a complex program more efficiently.

Thu 15 Sep

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

11:00 - 12:30
Session on Code Comprehension & Help SeekingResearch Papers at San Francesco Room
Chair(s): Thomas LaToza George Mason University
11:00
15m
Talk
Program-L: Online Help Seeking Behaviors by Blind and Low Vision ProgrammersShort paper
Research Papers
Jazette Johnson University of California - Irvine, Andrew Begel Carnegie Mellon University, Institute for Software Research, Richard Ladner University of Washington, Denae Ford Microsoft Research
DOI
11:15
30m
Talk
Pinpoint: A Record, Replay, and Extract System to Support Code Comprehension and ReuseFull paper
Research Papers
Wengran Wang North Carolina State University, Gordon Fraser University of Passau, Mahesh Bobbadi North Carolina State University, Benyamin Tabarsi North Carolina State University, Tiffany Barnes North Carolina State University, Chris Martens North Carolina State University, Shuyin Jiao North Carolina State University, Thomas Price North Carolina State University
DOI
11:45
30m
Talk
Understanding Similar Code through Comparative ComprehensionFull paper
Research Papers
Justin Middleton North Carolina State University, Kathryn Stolee North Carolina State University
DOI
12:15
15m
Talk
Exploring Organization of Computational Notebook Cells in 2D SpaceShort paper
Research Papers
Jesse Harden Virginia Tech, Elizabeth Christman Virginia Tech, Nurit Kirshenbaum University of Hawaii at Manoa, John Wenskovitch Virginia Tech, Jason Leigh University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Chris North Virginia Tech
DOI