Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Developers’ Perspective on Today’s and Tomorrow’s Programming Tool Assistance: A Survey

Kuang, Peng LU orcid ; Söderberg, Emma LU orcid and Höst, Martin LU (2024)
Abstract
Software development is a complex activity that needs a lot of tool assistance. Over the years there has been a lot of effort put into development of automated assistance to help with activities such as detection of issues via program analysis, or refactoring of code. Recently, the landscape of developer tool assistance is being disrupted with the entry of AI tools, such as Copilot and ChatGPT, powered via Large Language Models. Other kinds of tool assistance, for instance, gaze-driven assistance, is around the corner. What are programmers’ perceptions on tool assistance today? What do they see as good directions for the future?

In this paper, we present the results of a survey where we asked developers about their programming... (More)
Software development is a complex activity that needs a lot of tool assistance. Over the years there has been a lot of effort put into development of automated assistance to help with activities such as detection of issues via program analysis, or refactoring of code. Recently, the landscape of developer tool assistance is being disrupted with the entry of AI tools, such as Copilot and ChatGPT, powered via Large Language Models. Other kinds of tool assistance, for instance, gaze-driven assistance, is around the corner. What are programmers’ perceptions on tool assistance today? What do they see as good directions for the future?

In this paper, we present the results of a survey where we asked developers about their programming practices, experience with program analysis, and attitudes and views on enabling technologies, like AI and eye-tracking. We received 68 replies from a diverse group of developers from 12 different countries. We found that 50% of the participants use program analysis and that many participants (28) already use AI-enabled tools for programming. We found that our participants were positive toward AI-powers tools, neutral toward eye-tracking, and negative toward gamification. We discuss these and other findings and point out directions for future work. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
in press
subject
keywords
computer programming, software development, eye tracking, machine learning, developer tools, program analysis
host publication
Proceedings of the 10th Edition of the Programming Experience Workshop (PX), 2024
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
6f138dd1-bbdc-431e-899f-f0341a22f795
alternative location
https://2024.programming-conference.org/home/px-2024#event-overview
date added to LUP
2024-04-05 16:35:48
date last changed
2024-04-09 12:31:07
@inproceedings{6f138dd1-bbdc-431e-899f-f0341a22f795,
  abstract     = {{Software development is a complex activity that needs a lot of tool assistance. Over the years there has been a lot of effort put into development of automated assistance to help with activities such as detection of issues via program analysis, or refactoring of code. Recently, the landscape of developer tool assistance is being disrupted with the entry of AI tools, such as Copilot and ChatGPT, powered via Large Language Models. Other kinds of tool assistance, for instance, gaze-driven assistance, is around the corner. What are programmers’ perceptions on tool assistance today? What do they see as good directions for the future?<br/><br/>In this paper, we present the results of a survey where we asked developers about their programming practices, experience with program analysis, and attitudes and views on enabling technologies, like AI and eye-tracking. We received 68 replies from a diverse group of developers from 12 different countries. We found that 50% of the participants use program analysis and that many participants (28) already use AI-enabled tools for programming. We found that our participants were positive toward AI-powers tools, neutral toward eye-tracking, and negative toward gamification. We discuss these and other findings and point out directions for future work.}},
  author       = {{Kuang, Peng and Söderberg, Emma and Höst, Martin}},
  booktitle    = {{Proceedings of the 10th Edition of the Programming Experience Workshop (PX), 2024}},
  keywords     = {{computer programming; software development; eye tracking; machine learning; developer tools; program analysis}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{Developers’ Perspective on Today’s and Tomorrow’s Programming Tool Assistance: A Survey}},
  url          = {{https://2024.programming-conference.org/home/px-2024#event-overview}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}