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Nishitha Yedla PDF A APPROVED.pdf (1.69 MB)
ETD Abstract Container
Abstract Header
An Eye Tracking Study Assessing Code Readability
Author Info
Yedla, Nishitha
Permalink:
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu149512047317961
Abstract Details
Year and Degree
2017, Master of Computing and Information Systems, Youngstown State University, Department of Computer Science and Information Systems.
Abstract
Software developers spend considerable time on a wide variety of tasks such as fixing bugs and implementing new features. All these tasks require reading and understanding code. One of the key ideas for improving maintenance processes is that code should be highly readable so that it is easy to understand. The hypothesis behind this is that the degree of understandability of the source code has a crucial impact on cost and effort. To test this theory, we conducted an eye tracking study to determine how two types of code readability rules affect performance. We focused specifically on two coding practices: minimize-nesting rule and avoid do/while loops. The accuracy was higher for minimize-nesting rule and avoid do/while rule only for the correct methods that followed the rule. No significant difference is found in the amount of time spent to analyze the methods that followed the minimize-nesting rule and avoid do-while rule. For minimize-nesting rule, we found significant difference in ease of readability and level of confidence when the method followed the rule. For minimize nesting rule, the visual effort was less to analyze conditional statements and the overall method when the method followed the rule. The rank of readability was higher for methods that followed the rule. In the method comparison task, the visual effort was less to analyze the conditional statements of the methods that followed avoid do/while rule. The results of this study can be used by developers and practitioners to create coding style guides based on these rules.
Committee
Bonita Sharif, PhD (Advisor)
Alina Lazar, PhD (Committee Member)
Feng Yu, PhD (Committee Member)
Pages
135 p.
Subject Headings
Computer Science
Keywords
Eye tracking
;
Program comprehension
;
Code readability
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Citations
Yedla, N. (2017).
An Eye Tracking Study Assessing Code Readability
[Master's thesis, Youngstown State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu149512047317961
APA Style (7th edition)
Yedla, Nishitha.
An Eye Tracking Study Assessing Code Readability.
2017. Youngstown State University, Master's thesis.
OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center
, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu149512047317961.
MLA Style (8th edition)
Yedla, Nishitha. "An Eye Tracking Study Assessing Code Readability." Master's thesis, Youngstown State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu149512047317961
Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)
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Document number:
ysu149512047317961
Download Count:
804
Copyright Info
© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Youngstown State University and OhioLINK.