Q&A MAESTRO: Q&A Post Recommendation for Fixing Java Runtime Exceptions

TL;DR

Q&A MAESTRO is an IDE plugin that automatically recommends relevant Stack Overflow posts for Java runtime exceptions by analyzing code structure, helping programmers quickly find solutions without switching contexts.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method that leverages code structure information to automatically find relevant Q&A posts for Java runtime exceptions, improving developer efficiency.

Findings

User studies show improved search accuracy.

Reduces time spent switching between IDE and browser.

Demonstrates effective code-structure-based retrieval.

Abstract

Programmers often use Q&A sites (e.g., Stack Overflow) to understand a root cause of program bugs. Runtime exceptions is one of such important class of bugs that is actively discussed on Stack Overflow. However, it may be difficult for beginner programmers to come up with appropriate keywords for search. Moreover, they need to switch their attentions between IDE and browser, and it is time-consuming. To overcome these difficulties, we proposed a method, ``Q&A MAESTRO'', to find suitable Q&A posts automatically for Java runtime exception by utilizing structure information of codes described in programming Q&A website. In this paper, we describe a usage scenario of IDE-plugin, the architecture and user interface of the implementation, and results of user studies. A video is available at https://youtu.be/4X24jJrMUVw. A demo software is available at https://github.com/FujitsuLaboratories/Q-A-MAESTRO.