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Indentation: A Simple Matter of Style or Support for Program Comprehension?

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dc.contributor.authorBauer, Jennifer
dc.contributor.authorHofmeister, Johannes C.
dc.contributor.authorSiegmund, Janet
dc.contributor.authorApel, Sven
dc.date.accessioned2023-03-02T10:37:10Z
dc.date.available2023-03-02T10:37:10Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.description.abstractMost modern programming language style guides suggest a specific indentation depth to convey the structure of code (e.g., two or four spaces). In this study, we examine the effect of indentation depth on program comprehension, to provide justification for suggested levels of indentation made by modern style guides. In the course of our study, we asked 22 participants to evaluate the output of Java code snippets with different levels of indentation. We also measured correctness and speed of the responses, and asked participants to rate the difficulty of the code presented. We employed an eye tracker to gain additional insights into the influence of indentation on visual effort. We found a small effect of indentation depth on fixation duration, but could not detect differences in correctness or visual effort. Our findings suggest that indentations affect program comprehension at a lower, perceptual level of processing, rather than higher level reasoning. Our research design and methods with respect to visual effort could be a promising starting point for future studies in this field.en
dc.identifier.pissn0720-8928
dc.identifier.urihttps://dl.gi.de/handle/20.500.12116/40558
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherGeselllschaft für Informatik e.V.
dc.relation.ispartofSoftwaretechnik-Trends Band 38, Heft 2
dc.titleIndentation: A Simple Matter of Style or Support for Program Comprehension?en
dc.typeText/Journal Article
gi.citation.endPage44
gi.citation.publisherPlaceBonn
gi.citation.startPage43
gi.conference.sessiontitleFG SRE: 20. Workshop Software-Reengineering und -Evolution der GI-Fachgruppe Software-Reengineering (SRE) und 9. Workshop "Design for Future" des GI-Arbeitskreises "Langlebige Softwaresysteme" (L2S2), Bad-Honnef 02. -- 04. Mai 2018S

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Softwaretechnik-Trends 38(2) - 2018