CHAPTER

23

How the Web helps people turnideas into code

Joel Brandt,1,2 Philip J. Guo,1 Joel Lewenstein,1 Mira Dontcheva,2 Scott R. Klemmer11Stanford University2Adobe Systems, Inc.

ABSTRACT

This chapter investigates the role of online resources in building software. We look specifically at how programmers – an exemplar form of knowledge workers – opportunistically interleave Web foraging, learning, and writing code. To understand this, we have both studied how programmers work in the lab and analyzed Web search logs of programming resources. The lab provides rich, detailed information and context about how programmers work; online studies offer a naturalistic setting and the advantages of scale. We found that programmers engage in just-in-time ...

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