Thinking aloud about confusing code: a qualitative investigation of program comprehension and atoms of confusion
Abstract
Atoms of confusion are small patterns of code that have been empirically validated to be difficult to hand-evaluate by programmers. Previous research focused on defining and quantifying this phenomenon, but not on explaining or critiquing it. In this work, we address core omissions to the body of work on atoms of confusion, focusing on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of programmer misunderstanding.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{Gopstein-al:FSE20,
author = {Dan Gopstein and
Anne{-}Laure Fayard and
Sven Apel and
Justin Cappos},
title = {Thinking aloud about confusing code: a qualitative investigation of program comprehension and atoms of confusion},
booktitle = {{ESEC/SIGSOFT} {FSE}},
pages = {605--616},
publisher = {{ACM}},
year = {2020},
}