DOCSLIB.ORG

An Exploratory Study of Live-Streamed Programming

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
An Exploratory Study of Live-Streamed Programming An Exploratory Study of Live-Streamed Programming Abdulaziz Alaboudi Thomas D. LaToza George Mason University George Mason University Fairfax, Virginia, USA Fairfax, Virginia, USA [email protected] [email protected] Fig. 1: In live-streamed programming, a developer working on a programming activity shares a live video of their work with other developers, who may interact through chat to ask questions, suggest alternatives, and help find defects. I. INTRODUCTION Programming has long been in part a social activity, as developers share knowledge and collaborate on projects us- Abstract—In live-streamed programming, developers broad- ing platforms ranging from bulletin boards and mailing lists cast their development work on open source projects using to GitHub, StackOverflow, and Twitter [1]–[8]. Recently, a streaming media such as YouTube or Twitch. Sessions are first announced by a developer acting as the streamer, inviting other new form of collaboration has emerged in which develop- developers to join and interact as watchers using chat. To ers live-stream their work developing open source software arXiv:1907.05931v1 [cs.SE] 12 Jul 2019 better understand the characteristics, motivations, and chal- [9], inviting other developers to join a programming session lenges in live-streamed programming, we analyzed 20 hours of and watch while engaged in activities such as writing code, live-streamed programming videos and surveyed 7 streamers debugging, and refactoring. In this paper, we refer to this about their experiences. The results reveal that live-streamed programming shares some of the characteristics and benefits of form of collaboration as live-streamed programming. Live- pair programming, but differs in the nature of the relationship streamed programming sessions are often first announced by between the streamer and watchers. We also found that streamers a developer, sharing a date and time at which a session will are motivated by knowledge sharing, socializing, and building begin using social media such as Reddit and Twitter. The an online identity, but face challenges with tool limitations announcement may also include a link to the session, hosted and maintaining engagement with watchers. We discuss the implications of these findings, identify limitations with current on a video streaming platform such as YouTube or Twitch. tools, and propose design recommendations for new forms of During the session, developers join, watch, and interact, using tools to better supporting live-streamed programming. chat with the streaming developer to ask questions, offer suggestions, and warn about potential defects (Figure 1). Index Terms—screencasting, social coding, pair programming. Live-streamed programming is increasingly common within open source, with thousands of developers streaming their work and tens of thousands watching [10]. Streamers use answering programming-related questions [2]. Social coding communities such as Reddit1 and Shipstreams2 to connect with also occurs through Screen casting. Screencasting differs from watchers. Developers write about their personal experiences live-streamed programming in that developers work solo and with live-streamed programming, often comparing it to pair then post their video for asynchronous consumption. It is programming [11]–[13]. often used to document and share knowledge via online video However, many questions remain about the characteristics sharing platforms such as YouTube, helping developers to of live-streamed programming and the motives of its partic- promote themselves by building an online identity [17]. ipants. In this paper, we explore the nature of live-streamed Pair programming is a social and collaborative activity in programming as a new form of social coding and collaboration which two developers sit together at one computer, collab- between developers. Specifically, we focus on four research orating on designing, coding, debugging, and testing soft- questions: ware. The collaboration between the two developers occurs RQ1 What are the characteristics of live-streamed program- by each taking two roles interchangeably. The first role is ming? the driver, whose responsibility is to act, including writing RQ2 To what extent is live-streamed programming a form of code, debugging, and testing. The navigator is responsible pair programming? for observing the driver and suggesting strategies, alternative RQ3 What motivates developers to host live-streamed pro- solutions, and possible defects [18]. Several studies have gramming sessions? investigated the effectiveness of pair programming in both RQ4 What challenges do developers face in hosting live- industrial and educational contexts [19]. Pair programming streamed programming sessions? has been found to enable students to produce better programs To answer these questions, we conducted an exploratory [20] and to achieve better grades [21]. In industrial settings, study in which we watched 20 hours of live-streamed pro- studies suggest that pair programming provides benefits over gramming videos of seven developers (streamers) working on traditional solo programming. Professional developers report a variety of software development activities and interacting creating higher quality code, inserting fewer defects [22], and with other developers (watchers). We then sent a short survey an improvement in team communication [23] when practicing to the seven streamers and received five responses with insight pair programming. One form of pair programming is mob into their motivations and the challenges they faced. programming [24], in which a whole development team works Our results suggest that live-streamed programming shares at a single computer. The role of the driver is rotated among some characteristics and benefits with pair programming, team members every 5-15 minutes. This practice has been but also differs in several key ways. Watchers interact with found to increase team productivity and encourage face to face streamers less frequently and show less commitment. We iden- communication [25]. tified two forms of challenges which developers face. First, Distributed pair programming is a form of pair program- streamers struggled to maintain engagement with watchers ming in which the driver and the navigator are not collocated while working on development activities. Second, watchers and work remotely [26]. For distributed pair programming were not able to easily explore the codebase and quickly to have the same benefits as collocated pair programming, onboard with the task streamers were working on, limiting tools that support “cross-workspace information infrastruc- their ability to collaborate effectively with streamers. Based ture” must exist [27] to ensure that the driver and naviga- on these findings, we propose several design recommendations tor communicate effectively [28]. Several tools have been for how tools can more effectively support the live-streamed proposed to support distributed pair programming [29]. For programming workflow. example, Saros [30] and XPairtise [31] are Eclipse plug- ins that help developers to communicate during the pair II. BACKGROUND programming session. Saros is a flexible tool for distributed pair programming, providing a synchronized workspace and Social coding [4], [14] offers opportunities for developers visualizations to enhance awareness between the driver and the to collaborate and share artifacts across organizations, teams, navigator. XPairtise is built to support students’ collaboration and individuals. Software companies and individual developers by offering classroom support capabilities to add programming use platforms such as Github and GitLab to host open source and group assignments. projects and enable the creation of communities [15], [16]. Live coding is a social coding practice in which the goal Developers report that they enjoy the process of open sourcing is to perform and demonstrate in front of an audience, often their software and find it an effective way to improve their constructing small programs with 20 to 50 lines of code [32]. technical skills [1]. Researchers have studied how developers Live programming often occurs to produce electronic music in discuss and evaluate code contributions on platforms such as front of an audience [33]–[35] and to teach programming to Github [7], identifying challenges and best practices regard- students during lectures [36], [37]. Live-streamed program- ing code review [8]. Developers use communities such as ming differs from live coding in that it shows developers StackOverflow to share knowledge and help each other by engaged in software development activities on projects that are 1https://www.reddit.com/r/WatchPeopleCode intended to be production quality software (e.g., Shipstreams). 2https://shipstreams.com/ Prior studies of live-streamed programming have explored TABLE I: A summary of the ten sessions. The projects’ number of contributors and lines of code (LOC) indicate the size and level of activity of each project. Each project URL is prefixed with https://github.com/. Session Streamer Main Software Development Activity Contributors LOC Project URL Duration Obs. 1 D1 Implementing Features 5 385 Python eleweek/SearchingReddit 2:57:35 2 D1 Implementing Features 5 385 Python eleweek/SearchingReddit 1:49:00 3 D2 Implementing Features 1 423 C++ benhoff/face-recognizer-gui 1:25:28 4 D2 Implementing Features 1 423 C++ benhoff/face-recognizer-gui 2:02:36 5 D3 Code Refactoring 41 32.6K Rust graphql-rust/juniper 2:07:00 6 D4 Responding to Issues
Load more

Recommended publications
  • An Overview of Platforms for Cloud Based Development G
    Fylaktopoulos et al. SpringerPlus (2016) 5:38 DOI 10.1186/s40064-016-1688-5 REVIEW Open Access An overview of platforms for cloud based development G. Fylaktopoulos1, G. Goumas2, M. Skolarikis1, A. Sotiropoulos3 and I. Maglogiannis4* Abstract This paper provides an overview of the state of the art technologies for software development in cloud environments. The surveyed systems cover the whole spectrum of cloud-based development including integrated programming environments, code repositories, software modeling, composition and documentation tools, and application man- agement and orchestration. In this work we evaluate the existing cloud development ecosystem based on a wide number of characteristics like applicability (e.g. programming and database technologies supported), productiv- ity enhancement (e.g. editor capabilities, debugging tools), support for collaboration (e.g. repository functionality, version control) and post-development application hosting and we compare the surveyed systems. The conducted survey proves that software engineering in the cloud era has made its initial steps showing potential to provide con- crete implementation and execution environments for cloud-based applications. However, a number of important challenges need to be addressed for this approach to be viable. These challenges are discussed in the article, while a conclusion is drawn that although several steps have been made, a compact and reliable solution does not yet exist. Keywords: Cloud computing, Integrated Development Environment (IDE), Code repositories, Software modeling, Orchestration tools Background application side, large families of applications including Within the past few years, cloud computing has emerged desktop, business, entertainment (Simmhan et al. 2010; as a dominant computing model in IT infrastructures, Schmidt 2012; Hobfeld et al.
    [Show full text]
  • Online Programming System for Code Analysis and Activity Tracking
    Paper ID #18916 Online Programming System for Code Analysis and Activity Tracking Tian Qiu, Purdue University Tian Qiu is a senior undergraduate in Computer Engineering and Mathematics-Computer Science. Mr. Mengshi Feng, Purdue University Mengshi Feng is a senior student at Purdue University. He is one of the team member in ACCESS project supervised by Yung-Hsiang Lu. Mr. Sitian Lu, Purdue University Sitian Lu is a junior studying Computer Engineering in Purdue University. He has been working on the online programming system (ACCESS) since later 2015. Sitian Lu has been studying in Purdue University for 3 years. He is also the vice president of Purdue Billiards Club since 2015. Mr. Zhuofan Li Mr. Yudi Wu Dr. Carla B. Zoltowski, Purdue University Carla B. Zoltowski is an assistant professor of engineering practice in the Schools of Electrical and Com- puter Engineering and (by courtesy) Engineering Education at Purdue University. She holds a B.S.E.E., M.S.E.E., and Ph.D. in Engineering Education, all from Purdue. Prior to this she was Co-Director of the EPICS Program at Purdue where she was responsible for developing curriculum and assessment tools and overseeing the research efforts within EPICS. Her academic and research interests include the profes- sional formation of engineers, diversity and inclusion in engineering, human-centered design, engineering ethics, leadership, service-learning, and accessibility and assistive-technology. Dr. Yung-Hsiang Lu, Purdue University Yung-Hsiang Lu is an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and (by courtesy) the Department of Computer Science of Purdue University.
    [Show full text]
  • Python Projects for Resume Reddit
    Python Projects For Resume Reddit Chet rape his klutz settles wrong or extraneously after Neron prune and covings proprietorially, undisturbing and Caldwellallegiant. neverSniffiest dibble Torrin any levigating parroquets! some Caen after ringent Marmaduke insists snappishly. Anabatic or suchlike, This location that on how to make the reddit python project on a java or command Then I decided to personalize my cover paid and resume summary then route to send. CodeSignal Coding Tests and Assessments for Technical. Can perform give baby some good examples of mediumhigh level projects that. Self-taught Python and CC What of some projects I can. Advanced Programming Projects Reddit. Get instant coding help build projects faster and read programming tutorials from. I managed to surface a script that asks for order number checks of the remainder is. Search for code editors and you to properly. ShadowmooseRedditDownloader Scrapes Reddit to GitHub. Best Machine Learning GitHub Repostories & Reddit. Python vs powershell reddit ERAZ 2020. Entry level programming jobs reddit Bacta. Scrape a Subreddit Reddit is rate of cotton most popular social media platforms out there phone has communities called subreddits for nearly every topic he can. Feb 27 2020 Free Resume Builder Reddit 32 Inspirational Free. One Click Essays Best paper community service reddit best team. A bot that connects to an API like the ones provided by YouTube Reddit or Discord. The against for me to them able today put a personal or side free on other resume. Interning at and cross your bots you for resume. Niraj Sheth Senior Software Engineer Crypto Reddit Inc. Projects that feature're proud of languages that you've worked in you don't need to.
    [Show full text]
  • Cloud Based Integrated Development Environment for Android Devices
    Special Issue - 2015 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 NCRTS-2015 Conference Proceedings Cloud based Integrated Development Environment for Android Devices Prof Manjunath R.1 Arunjith C.2 Head of Department Computer Science & Engineering Computer Science & Engineering City Engineering College City Engineering College Bangalore, India Bangalore, India Abstract—Integrated Development Environment is an integration of complete tool suites for software application which provides facilities to programmer for development and the development of language-specific software development such as code completing and fixing, editor services took a tremendous effort for the current source code editing and management, automated testing, generation of IDEs such as Eclipse and Visual Studio. etc. Software is rapidly moving from the desktop to the Web. The Web provides a generic user interface that This paper discusses the implementation of Web allows ubiquitous access, instant collaboration, integration Based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for with other online services, and avoids installation and Android Devices with the different languages to code, configuration on desktop computers. Moving IDEs to the compile and run the code. The Web Based IDE will allow Web is not just a matter of porting desktop IDEs, a easy development and testing of applications. The users fundamental reconsideration of the IDE architecture is have the privilege to register on to the system write, save necessary in order to realize the full potential that the and manage programs online. After the language is combination of modern IDEs and the Web can offer. chosen by the user the request is forwarded to the This paper discusses implementation of Web based IDE respective compiler.
    [Show full text]
  • Web Based Interface Implementation For: Ruby, Perl, Python, VB & HTML
    International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056 Volume: 02 Issue: 06 | Sep-2015 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 Web Based Interface Implementation for: Ruby, Perl, Python, VB & HTML. Poreddy Jayaraju, Vijay Prakash 1. Master of engineering, computer science, Sri Vaishnav Instt. of Tech .&science Indore. RGPV University, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. 2. Asst professor, computer science, Sri Vaishnav Instt. of Tech .&science Indore. RGPV University, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. ---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract web based interface is an application and the introduction of HTML5, there is now even a which provides facilities to programmer for software small but growing collection of browser-based code development such as code completing and fixing, editors. Fully fledged integrated development source code editing and management, automated environments (IDEs) are still lagging behind in this pull testing, etc. Software is rapidly moving from the towards the Web. Modern, desktop-based IDEs integrate desktop to the Web. The Web provides a generic user a wide range of software engineering tools, and provide interface that allows ubiquitous access, instant a platform for writing, maintaining, testing, building, collaboration, integration with other online services, running, debugging, and deploying software. They and avoids installation and configuration on desktop increase developer productivity by incorporating many computers. Moving IDEs to the Web is not just a different kinds of editor services specific to the syntax matter of porting desktop IDEs, a fundamental and semantics of a language. These services assist reconsideration of the IDE architecture is necessary in developers in understanding and navigating through the order to realize the full potential that the combination code, they direct developers to inconsistent or of modern IDEs and the Web can offer.
    [Show full text]
  • Router Keygen Git
    Router keygen git Contact RouterKeygen. Feel free to email us to provide some feedback and give us suggestions! exobel@ · Facebook · Twitter · Github. Copyright. routerkeygenAndroid - Router Keygen generate default WPA/WEP keys for several routers. More than 25 million people use GitHub to discover, fork, and contribute to over 69 million Router Keygen generate default WPA/WEP keys for several routers. Qt Port for Linux, Mac OSX and Windows. Contribute to routerkeygenPC development by creating an account on GitHub. Router Keygen generate default WPA/WEP keys for the following router: Thomson based routers (this includes Thomson, SpeedTouch, Orange, Infinitum, BBox. UPC router default WPA2 key generator. Contribute to upcKeygen development by creating an account on GitHub. #NetHunter Terminal Application This application allows to open up one of several kinds of terminals - a chrooted Kali terminal, an Android. Closed. poutrosgit opened this Issue on Nov 28, · 2 comments Perhaps you could integrate router keygen () into csploit? App Information Router Keygen. App Name. Router Keygen. Package Name. keygen. Updated. September 12, File Size. My router keygen github. Fiberglass crack inspection. Motion Download. ?id=keygen&hl=en Router Keygen APK Download - Android Tools Apps. Sep 12, Router Keygen is a tool with which you can decipher Thomson passwords and WiFi I am not able to clone or push to a git repository at Bitbucket in Eclipse: It's. Gogs (Go Git Service) is a painless self-hosted Git service written in Go. Groups; Android Google Code will act as a mirror of Github from now on. Router Keygen generate default WPA/WEP keys for the following router: Thomson.
    [Show full text]
  • Linux Online Virtual Environments in Teaching Operating Systems
    Linux Online Virtual Environments in Teaching Operating Systems Olena Holovnia[0000-0003-0095-7585] Zhytomyr Polytechnic State University, 103, Chudnivska str., Zhytomyr, 10005, Ukraine [email protected] Abstract. The article provides an overview of Linux ready-made online environments based on various virtualization technologies. Linux ready-made online virtual environments are systematized, the advantages and disadvantages of considering groups of online virtual environments are listed. The work also gives the comparison of standalone online Unix/Linux terminals in terms of their possible use for a course in operating systems. The author analyzes the experience of teaching a Linux operating system to students of different specializations, and in particular, discusses the virtualization tools used, including Linux online environments (Amazon EC2, Cloud 9, a virtual machine for NDG Linux Essentials course). The study states the need for developing an individually designed system to provide Linux online virtual environments and elaborates the requirements to this system. The work also discusses potential challenges which the developers of Linux online virtual environments for teaching operating systems may face, including the problem of finding a balance between availability and stability of virtual environments on the one hand and the realism of students’ learning experience on the other hand. Keywords: virtualization, Linux, operating systems. 1 Introduction A course in operating systems (OS) usually includes practical assignments on Unix- like operating systems (particularly, Linux). However, at the same time, university lab computers, students’ laptops and home desktop computers mostly come with Windows installation. That is one important reason why different virtualization technologies are often used for a course in operating systems.
    [Show full text]
  • Online Code Compilation Using Cloud Computing
    International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056 Volume: 03 Issue: 05 | May-2016 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 Online Code Compilation using Cloud Computing Jasmeet Chhabra1, Shubham Bhatia2, Vaibhav Kamal Nigam3, Rashik Bhasin4 1Student, Computer Science and Eng., JIIT University, Noida, U.P., India 2Student, Information Technology, JIIT University, Noida, U.P., India 3Student, Information Technology, JIIT University, Noida, U.P., India 4Student, Computer Science and Eng., JIIT University, Noida, U.P., India ---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract - Computer Program that Software Developers use access their respective codes. In case of scarce need of a to create, debug, maintain, or otherwise support other PC editing of code is impossible. Thus, Online Code programs and applications are Programming Tools, Which Editor was proposed to solve this problem. It helps if produces accurate, meticulous and swift results can lead programmers to write or modify their source code at any to Good Quality Error Free Code. This paper proposed the place and any time they want. [4] The online text editor Online Code Editor that was created for Beginners, was built and run on Private cloud computing based on Programmers Designers or Developers who want to code web-based application. Open source software called programs On the Go without use of a Dedicated Software Ace was used to highlight the text. Program can be Installed having Full Portability and Transferability. It saved and complied via web browser and the code will be based on web application running on the Private cloud done at server-side. Then, the output of the compilation is computing.
    [Show full text]
  • Coding Resources
    Introduction to Coding - Coding Resources March 4, 2019 Jason Velarde Freeport Memorial Library [email protected] Block Coding – the standard way to teach introductory programming in the US. Instead of traditional, text based programming, block based coding involves dragging “blocks” of instructions. Hour of Code http://hourofcode.org Scratch http://scratch.mit.edu Trinket http://trinket.io/ *Learn how blocks translate into code HTML/CSS - HTML is the foundation behind all web pages. It's used to add structure and form to text, images, and more. CSS is the language used to style HTML content. W3Schools http://w3schools.com (free) Code Academy https://www.codecademy.com/catalog/language/html-css (free “Intro,” pay for “Pro”) freeCodeCamp http://freecodecamp.org (free) Code Avengers https://www.codeavengers.com/ (free trial) Udemy http://udemy.com ($11.99 courses) Lynda.com http://www.lynda.com/portal/patron?org=freeportlibrary.info (free w/ library card) CoderDojo http://kata.coderdojo.com/wiki/HTML_Path (free) Coder’s Guide https://www.youtube.com/user/CodersGuide (YouTube) DevTips https://www.youtube.com/user/DevTipsForDesigners (YouTube) JavaScript - JavaScript is the programming language of the web. You can use it to add dynamic behavior, store information, and handle requests and responses on a website. Code Academy https://www.codecademy.com/catalog/language/javascript (free “Intro,” pay for “Pro”) CoderDojo http://kata.coderdojo.com/wiki/JavaScript_Path (free) freeCodeCamp http://freecodecamp.org (free) Code Avengers https://www.codeavengers.com/ (free trial) Khan Academy https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming (free) Udemy http://udemy.com ($11.99 courses) Lynda.com http://www.lynda.com/portal/patron?org=freeportlibrary.info (free w/ library card) Coder’s Guide https://www.youtube.com/user/CodersGuide (YouTube) Python - Python is a general-purpose, versatile, and modern programming language.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding the Factors That Impact the Popularity of Github Repositories
    Understanding the Factors that Impact the Popularity of GitHub Repositories Hudson Borges, Andre Hora, Marco Tulio Valente ASERG Group, Department of Computer Science (DCC) Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil E-mail: fhsborges, hora, [email protected] Abstract—Software popularity is a valuable information to developers because they want to know whether their systems modern open source developers, who constantly want to know are attracting new users, whether the new releases are gaining if their systems are attracting new users, if new releases are acceptance, whether their systems are as popular as competitor gaining acceptance, or if they are meeting user’s expectations. In this paper, we describe a study on the popularity of software systems, etc. Unfortunately, we have few studies about the systems hosted at GitHub, which is the world’s largest collection popularity of GitHub systems. The exceptions are probably of open source software. GitHub provides an explicit way for an attempt to differentiate popular and unpopular Python users to manifest their satisfaction with a hosted repository: repositories using machine learning techniques [5] and a the stargazers button. In our study, we reveal the main factors study on the effect of project’s popularity on documentation that impact the number of stars of GitHub projects, including programming language and application domain. We also study quality [6]. By contrast, popularity is extensively studied on the impact of new features on project popularity. Finally, we other social platforms, like YouTube [7], [8] and Twitter [9], identify four main patterns of popularity growth, which are [10]. These studies are mainly conducted to guide content derived after clustering the time series representing the number generators on producing successful social media content.
    [Show full text]
  • ROSS JAMES KEELEY [email protected] | +353 86 891 4223 | Linkedin.Com/In/Rosskeeley​ | London, UK ​ OBJECTIVE
    ROSS JAMES KEELEY [email protected] | +353 86 891 4223 | linkedin.com/in/rosskeeley​ | London, UK ​ OBJECTIVE Passionate problem solver mentored by a professional developer and full-stack coding course seeking a Software Developer role to apply full-stack programming experience and build dynamic web applications SKILLS Tech/Tools: JavaScript/ES6, jQuery, React, Redux, Ajax, D3, Node, Helmet, Express, Heroku, HTML, CSS, ​ Bootstrap, Sass, SQL, NoSQL, MongoDB, Mongoose, RegEx, REST API, Git, Linux, Figma Practices: Object Oriented Programming (OOP), Functional Programming, Agile Scrum/Kanban Methodology ​ Projects: rosskeeley.com | github.com/rosskeeley | freecodecamp.org/rosskeeley ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ EXPERIENCE FreeCodeCamp - Student and Freelance Developer June 2020 - Present ● Created responsive web pages using JS, HTML, CSS, Flexbox/Grid, Bootstrap, visual design & accessibility to build projects: Tribute Page, Survey Form, Product Landing Page, Technical Doc., & Personal Portfolio ● Practiced OOP, basic algorithms, and modifying data structures using Javascript to build projects: Palindrome Checker, Roman Numeral Converter, Caesars Cipher, Phone Number Validator, Cash Register ● Learned Git SCM, linux commands, and agile methodology to manage projects ● Used front end libraries: Bootstrap, JQuery, and React to build projects like Random Quote Machine, Markdown Previewer, Drum Machine, Chat Room, and JavaScript Calculator ● Understanding of general information security and quality assurance ● Built a Timestamp microservice and Request Header
    [Show full text]
  • Using Docker to Assist Q&A Forum Users
    1 Using Docker to Assist Q&A Forum Users Luis Melo, Igor Wiese and Marcelo d’Amorim Abstract—Q&A forums are today a valuable tool to assist developers in programming tasks. Unfortunately, contributions to these forums are often unclear and incomplete. Docker is a container solution that enables software developers to encapsulate an operating environment and could help address reproducibility issues. This paper reports on a feasibility study to evaluate if Docker can help improve reproducibility in Stack Overflow. We started surveying Stack Overflow users to understand their perceptions on the proposal of using Docker to reproduce Stack Overflow posts. Participants were critical and mentioned two important aspects: cost and need. To validate their criticism, we conducted an exploratory study focused on understanding how costly the task of creating containers for posts is for developers. Overall, results indicate that the cost of creating containers is not high, especially due to the fact that dockerfiles are highly similar and small. Based on these findings we developed a tool, dubbed FRISK, to assist developers in creating containers for those posts. We then conducted a user study to evaluate interest of Stack Overflow developers on the tool. We found that, on average, users spent nearly ten minutes interacting with FRISK and that 45.3% of the 563 FRISK sessions we created for existing posts resulted in a successful access to the corresponding web service by the owners of the post. Overall, this paper provides early evidence that the use of Docker in Q&A forums should be encouraged for configuration-related posts.
    [Show full text]