Archetypal source code searches: a survey of software developers and maintainers

Abstract

We have conducted a survey to generate archetypes of source code searching by programmers across maintenance tasks. Using a questionnaire on a web page, we obtained 69 responses from readers of 7 newsgroups. Respondents were asked about their source code searching habits: what tools they used, why they searched, and what they searched for. The four most common search targets were function definitions, all uses of a function, variable definitions, and all uses of a variable. The most common search motivations were defect repair, code reuse, program understanding, feature addition, and impact analysis. Eleven archetypes were generated from the anecdotes and results. The implications and practical applications of these findings and method are discussed.