Discovering how end-user programmers and their communities use public repositories: A study on Yahoo! Pipes.
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| Title: | Discovering how end-user programmers and their communities use public repositories: A study on Yahoo! Pipes. |
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| Authors: | Stolee, Kathryn T.1 kstolee@cse.unl.edu, Elbaum, Sebastian1 elbaum@cse.unl.edu, Sarma, Anita1 asarma@cse.unl.edu |
| Source: | Information & Software Technology. Jul2013, Vol. 55 Issue 7, p1289-1303. 15p. |
| Subjects: | Computer programmers, Computer users, Case studies, Software engineering, Computational complexity, Computer software, Virtual communities, Computer systems |
| Abstract: | Abstract: Context: End-user programmers are numerous, write software that matters to an increasingly large number of users, and face software engineering challenges that are similar to their professionals counterparts. Yet, we know little about how these end-user programmers create and share artifacts in repositories as part of a community. Objective: This work aims to gain a better understanding of end-user programmer communities, the characteristics of artifacts in community repositories, and how authors evolve over time. Method: An artifact-based analysis of 32,000 mashups from the Yahoo! Pipes repository was performed. The popularity, configurability, complexity, and diversity of the artifacts were measured. Additionally, for the most prolific authors, we explore their submission trends over time. Results: Similar to other online communities, there is great deal of attrition but authors who persevere tend to improve over time, creating pipes that are more configurable, diverse, complex, and popular. We also discovered, however, that end-user programmers do not effectively reuse existing programs, submit pipes that are highly similar to others already in the repository, and in most cases do not have an awareness of the community or the richness of artifacts that exist in repositories. Conclusion: There is a need for better end-user programmer support in several stages of the software lifecycle, including development, maintenance, search, and program understanding. Without such support, the community repositories will continue to be cluttered with highly-similar artifacts and authors may not be able to take full advantage of the community resources. [Copyright &y& Elsevier] |
| Copyright of Information & Software Technology is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Engineering Source |
| FullText | Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Header | DbId: egs DbLabel: Engineering Source An: 89099639 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Discovering how end-user programmers and their communities use public repositories: A study on Yahoo! Pipes. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Stolee%2C+Kathryn+T%2E%22">Stolee, Kathryn T.</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><i> kstolee@cse.unl.edu</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Elbaum%2C+Sebastian%22">Elbaum, Sebastian</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><i> elbaum@cse.unl.edu</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Sarma%2C+Anita%22">Sarma, Anita</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><i> asarma@cse.unl.edu</i> – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Information+%26+Software+Technology%22">Information & Software Technology</searchLink>. Jul2013, Vol. 55 Issue 7, p1289-1303. 15p. – Name: Subject Label: Subjects Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Computer+programmers%22">Computer programmers</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Computer+users%22">Computer users</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Case+studies%22">Case studies</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Software+engineering%22">Software engineering</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Computational+complexity%22">Computational complexity</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Computer+software%22">Computer software</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Virtual+communities%22">Virtual communities</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Computer+systems%22">Computer systems</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: Abstract: Context: End-user programmers are numerous, write software that matters to an increasingly large number of users, and face software engineering challenges that are similar to their professionals counterparts. Yet, we know little about how these end-user programmers create and share artifacts in repositories as part of a community. Objective: This work aims to gain a better understanding of end-user programmer communities, the characteristics of artifacts in community repositories, and how authors evolve over time. Method: An artifact-based analysis of 32,000 mashups from the Yahoo! Pipes repository was performed. The popularity, configurability, complexity, and diversity of the artifacts were measured. Additionally, for the most prolific authors, we explore their submission trends over time. Results: Similar to other online communities, there is great deal of attrition but authors who persevere tend to improve over time, creating pipes that are more configurable, diverse, complex, and popular. We also discovered, however, that end-user programmers do not effectively reuse existing programs, submit pipes that are highly similar to others already in the repository, and in most cases do not have an awareness of the community or the richness of artifacts that exist in repositories. Conclusion: There is a need for better end-user programmer support in several stages of the software lifecycle, including development, maintenance, search, and program understanding. Without such support, the community repositories will continue to be cluttered with highly-similar artifacts and authors may not be able to take full advantage of the community resources. [Copyright &y& Elsevier] – Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright Label: Group: Ab Data: <i>Copyright of Information & Software Technology is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1016/j.infsof.2012.10.004 Languages: – Code: eng Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 15 StartPage: 1289 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Computer programmers Type: general – SubjectFull: Computer users Type: general – SubjectFull: Case studies Type: general – SubjectFull: Software engineering Type: general – SubjectFull: Computational complexity Type: general – SubjectFull: Computer software Type: general – SubjectFull: Virtual communities Type: general – SubjectFull: Computer systems Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Discovering how end-user programmers and their communities use public repositories: A study on Yahoo! Pipes. Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Stolee, Kathryn T. – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Elbaum, Sebastian – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Sarma, Anita IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 07 Text: Jul2013 Type: published Y: 2013 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 09505849 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 55 – Type: issue Value: 7 Titles: – TitleFull: Information & Software Technology Type: main |
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