Time-awareness in Object-exploration Tools: Toward In Situ Omniscient DebuggingRemote
Exploration of state and behavior is essential for understanding and debugging object-oriented programs. Many time-related questions about object communication – an object’s history – only arise in the context of a specific error in the here and now. At such a specific point in time, however, it is often distracting to involve omniscient debugging tools such as program tracers, because they do not integrate well with the programmer’s current focus on space-related questions and the informational cues at hand. In this paper, we present a novel way to provide a tangible, consolidated notion of both space and time in object exploration tools to make it more likely that programmers will use the available means to explore the evolution of particular objects. With programmers remaining informed about and in control of a program’s space and time, we promote the scientific method for debugging and leverage exploratory programming practices. We evaluate our model with hands-on experiences in the Squeak/Smalltalk programming system, using a program tracer that we have integrated into existing exploration tools to promote both spatial and temporal views. We believe that a clear, tangible notion of spacetime can help tool designers provide a better programming experience for those constantly recurring “What happened to this object?” situations.
Wed 25 OctDisplayed time zone: Lisbon change
11:00 - 12:30 | |||
11:00 30mTalk | Time-awareness in Object-exploration Tools: Toward In Situ Omniscient DebuggingRemote Onward! Papers Christoph Thiede Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, Germany, Marcel Taeumel University of Potsdam; Hasso Plattner Institute, Robert Hirschfeld University of Potsdam; Hasso Plattner Institute Link to publication DOI | ||
11:30 30mTalk | Code Merging Using Transformations and Member Identity Onward! Papers André R. Teles University Institute of Lisbon, André L. Santos University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal | ||
12:00 30mTalk | Scalable Spreadsheet-driven End-User Applications with Incremental Computation Onward! Papers |