NCQ: Code reuse support for node.js developers

TL;DR

NCQ is a tool that enhances Node.js developers' productivity by enabling natural language package searches, code snippet retrieval, automatic error correction, and streamlined environment setup, thus facilitating efficient code reuse.

Contribution

Introduces NCQ, a novel environment that integrates natural language search, code snippet retrieval, and automatic correction to support code reuse in Node.js development.

Findings

Participants programmed faster with NCQ.

NCQ improved task completion times.

Users appreciated code snippet and package search features.

Abstract

Code reuse is an important part of software development. The adoption of code reuse practices is especially common among Node.js developers. The Node.js package manager, NPM, indexes over 1 Million packages and developers often seek out packages to solve programming tasks. Due to the vast number of packages, selecting the right package is difficult and time consuming. With the goal of improving productivity of developers that heavily reuse code through third-party packages, we present Node Code Query (NCQ), a Read-Eval-Print-Loop environment that allows developers to 1) search for NPM packages using natural language queries, 2) search for code snippets related to those packages, 3) automatically correct errors in these code snippets, 4) quickly setup new environments for testing those snippets, and 5) transition between search and editing modes. In two user studies with a total of 20 participants, we find that participants begin programming faster and conclude tasks faster with NCQ than with baseline approaches, and that they like, among other features, the search for code snippets and packages. Our results suggest that NCQ makes Node.js developers more efficient in reusing code.