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Jeanne Scholtz

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Publications by Jeanne Scholtz (bibliography)

» 1999 «

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Wiedenbeck, Susan and Scholtz, Jeanne (1999): Introduction to the Special Issue "Best of Empirical Studies of Programmers 7. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 51 (1) pp. 3-5

» 1993 «

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Bertholf, Christopher F. and Scholtz, Jeanne (1993): Program Comprehension of Literate Programs by Novice Programmers. In: Cook, Curtis, Scholtz, Jean and Spohrer, James C. (eds.) Empirical Studies of Programmers - Fifth Workshop December 3-15, 1993, 1993, Palo Alto, California. p. 222.

“This study compares comprehension of Lit style literate programs with that of traditional modular programs with both internal and external documentation. Literate programming (Knuth, 1984)* enhances a computer program by incorporating program text into a comprehensive design document. Although not previously well defined, we believe Knuth's concept has great intuitive appeal, fits in well with a multi-disciplinary approach to automating portions of the software engineering process, and can be adapted easily to the incorporation of empirically derived principles of program comprehension. The Lit system developed by Chris Bertholf employs many of Knuth's principles for literate style programs as well as several others; the program text is incorporated into a comprehensive design document which uses typographic cues and a book style presentation paradigm. A program description and information about design history, the task domain, and implementation are included in the program document. The table of contents provides information about the overall structure of the program. In addition, algorithms are documented in pseudo-code and documentation of anticipated modifications is included. Extensive documentation of the usage of variables, procedures, and functions is also included. Does this increased amount of documentation and the unique presentation format hinder or facilitate program comprehension? This study compared the comprehension results of 20 novice programmers randomly divided into two groups and given either a traditional modular FORTRAN program or an equivalent Lit style literate program to modify. Subjects performed the task of completing an incomplete program; all program modifications were made on paper, thus syntax errors were expected. The elapsed time to produce a solution was recorded, and several measures of comprehension were collected and analyzed. Completed programs were judged as completely correct, functionally correct with syntax errors, or incorrect. The overall result was that subjects given the literate programs found a solution more often than did subjects using the traditional modular programs. None of the subjects given the modular programs were able to produce even functionally correct solutions. In addition, none of the subjects given Lit style literate programs modified sections of code that were unrelated to the modification specification while all of the subjects given traditional modular programs modified sections of code which were unrelated to the modification specification. Similar results have also been obtained with advanced programmers in another related study. Although this study did not attempt to isolate the factors which aided in comprehension, it did show that the Lit style programs are useful for program maintenance tasks. Future research in this area should concentrate on isolating the factors that produced such a marked distinction in performance between the Lit style literate program group and the traditional program group. * Knuth, D. (1984). Literate Programming. The Computer Journal, 27(2), 97-112.”

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» 1992 «

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Scholtz, Jeanne and Wiedenbeck, Susan (1992): Learning New Programming Languages: An Analysis of the Process and Problems Encountered. In Behaviour and Information Technology, 11 (4) pp. 199-215

“Experienced programmers transferring to a new language have a far easier time than the novice learning a first language. However, they still experience considerable difficulties. The objective in this exploratory study was to characterize the kinds of learning and transfer that take place in the early stages of using a new programming language and where difficulties develop. 'Think-aloud' protocols were videotaped as subjects went about trying to write a program in a new programming language. Subjects used one of two unfamiliar languages, one similar to their known language (Pascal) and the other dissimilar. Three types of analyses were done on the recorded protocols: a procedural analysis showing the activities the subjects engaged in as they learned the new language, a programming knowledge analysis showing in which areas of program development difficulties were encountered, and a solutions analysis showing how successful the programmers were at using unique features of the new language. We found that the procedures programmers used to learn a new language were independent of the language being learned. The slight differences that existed in procedures were between levels of expertise. Programmers spent the majority of their time reading a language textbook. The programming knowledge analysis showed that programmers' main area of concentration was planning how to implement their approach given the constructs available in the language. We observed many iterations of programmers trying to implement plans, failing and having to revise their plans. Examination of the subjects' solutions and implementation approaches in Pascal led us to believe that programmers learning a new language are often biased by their implementation of algorithms in previous languages.”

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» 1989 «

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Scholtz, Jeanne and Wiedenbeck, Susan (1989): Learning a New Programming Language. In: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 1989. pp. 152-159.

“Experienced programmers transferring to a new programming language have a far easier time than the novice learning a first language. However, they still experience considerable difficulties. Our objective in this study was to characterize the kinds of learning and transfer that take place in the early stages of using a new programming language and where difficulties develop. Transfer of skill has been studied in text editing, but not in programming, so this work is an initial contribution. It has theoretical significance for the understanding of transfer processes in a complex domain and practical significance for the training or retraining of programmers. We are interested in using what we discover to design automated systems to facilitate transfer among programming languages.”

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