Code Compass: A Study on the Challenges of Navigating Unfamiliar Codebases

TL;DR

This paper introduces CodeCompass, a tool designed to improve program comprehension by integrating documentation within IDEs, reducing navigation time and enhancing debugging efficiency for unfamiliar codebases.

Contribution

The study presents a novel IDE-integrated tool, CodeCompass, that addresses documentation utilization challenges in code comprehension, with promising initial results.

Findings

Reduces documentation navigation time

Improves code comprehension and task completion

Addresses gaps in existing tools

Abstract

In our research, we investigate the challenges that software engineers face during program comprehension, particularly when debugging unfamiliar codebases. We propose a novel tool, CodeCompass, to address these issues. Our study highlights a significant gap in current tools and methodologies, especially the difficulty developers encounter in effectively utilizing documentation alongside code exploration. CodeCompass tackles these challenges by seamlessly integrating documentation within the IDE, offering context-aware suggestions and visualizations that streamline the debugging process. Our formative study demonstrates how effectively the tool reduces the time developers spend navigating documentation, thereby enhancing code comprehension and task completion rates. Future work will focus on automating the process of annotating codebases, creating sandbox tasks, and providing dynamic support. These innovations could potentially transform software development practices by improving the accessibility and efficiency of program comprehension tools.