Debugging Framework Applications: Benefits and Challenges

TL;DR

This paper investigates the benefits and challenges of debugging framework applications, focusing on Android and ROS, and develops a theory to guide debugging strategies and tool design.

Contribution

It provides a new theory on framework debugging benefits and challenges based on human studies, aiding future debugging strategies and tool development.

Findings

Developers find inversion of control challenging during debugging.

Framework application structure is helpful for debugging.

The study offers guidance for debugging strategies and tool design.

Abstract

Aspects of frameworks, such as inversion of control and the structure of framework applications, require developers to adjust their debugging strategies as compared to debugging sequential programs. However, the benefits and challenges of framework debugging are not fully understood, and gaining this knowledge could provide guidance in debugging strategies and framework tool design. To gain insight into the process developers use to fix problems in framework applications, we performed two human studies investigating how developers fix applications that use a framework API incorrectly. These studies focused on the Android Fragment class and the ROS framework. We analyzed the results of the studies using a mixed-methods approach, consisting of techniques from grounded theory, qualitative content analysis, and case studies. From our analysis, we produced a theory of the benefits and challenges of framework debugging. This theory states that developers find inversion of control challenging when debugging but find the structure of framework applications helpful. This theory could be used to guide strategies for debugging framework applications and framework tool designs.