article

Improving code completion with program history

Authors:

Michele LanzaAuthors Info & Claims

Automated Software Engineering, Volume 17, Issue 2

Pages 181 - 212

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10515-010-0064-x

Published: 01 June 2010 Publication History

Abstract

Code completion is a widely used productivity tool. It takes away the burden of remembering and typing the exact names of methods or classes: As a developer starts typing a name, it provides a progressively refined list of candidates matching the name. However, the candidate list usually comes in alphabetic order, i.e., the environment is only second-guessing the name based on pattern matching, relying on human intervention to pick the correct one. Finding the correct candidate can thus be cumbersome or slower than typing the full name.

We present an approach to improve code completion based on recorded program histories. We define a benchmarking procedure measuring the accuracy of a code completion engine and apply it to several completion algorithms on a dataset consisting of the history of several systems. Further, we use the change history data to improve the results offered by code completion tools. Finally, we propose an alternative interface for completion tools that we released to developers and evaluated.

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Weber TBrandmaier MSchmidt AMayer S(2024)Significant Productivity Gains through Programming with Large Language ModelsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36611458:EICS(1-29)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3661145
Liu FFu ZLi GJin ZLiu HHao YZhang L(2024)Non-Autoregressive Line-Level Code CompletionACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/364959433:5(1-34)Online publication date: 26-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649594
Ciniselli MMartin-Lopez ABavota GBaysal OLinares-Vasquez MMoran KSteinmacher I(2024)On the Generalizability of Deep Learning-based Code Completion Across Programming Language VersionsProceedings of the 32nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension10.1145/3643916.3644411(99-111)Online publication date: 15-Apr-2024
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Published In

cover image Automated Software Engineering

Automated Software Engineering Volume 17, Issue 2

June 2010

96 pages

ISSN:0928-8910

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © Copyright © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Publisher

Kluwer Academic Publishers

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 June 2010

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Cited By

Weber TBrandmaier MSchmidt AMayer S(2024)Significant Productivity Gains through Programming with Large Language ModelsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36611458:EICS(1-29)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3661145
Liu FFu ZLi GJin ZLiu HHao YZhang L(2024)Non-Autoregressive Line-Level Code CompletionACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/364959433:5(1-34)Online publication date: 26-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649594
Ciniselli MMartin-Lopez ABavota GBaysal OLinares-Vasquez MMoran KSteinmacher I(2024)On the Generalizability of Deep Learning-based Code Completion Across Programming Language VersionsProceedings of the 32nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension10.1145/3643916.3644411(99-111)Online publication date: 15-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643916.3644411
Adhikari BRapos EStephan M(2024)SimIMA: a virtual Simulink intelligent modeling assistantSoftware and Systems Modeling (SoSyM)10.1007/s10270-023-01093-623:1(29-56)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10270-023-01093-6
Kim KGhatpande SKim DZhou XLiu KBissyandé TKlein JLe Traon Y(2023)Big Code Search: A BibliographyACM Computing Surveys10.1145/360490556:1(1-49)Online publication date: 26-Aug-2023
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Wang SWen MLin BLiu YBissyandé TMao X(2023)Pre-implementation Method Name Prediction for Object-oriented ProgrammingACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/359720332:6(1-35)Online publication date: 29-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3597203
Ciniselli MPascarella LAghajani EScalabrino SOliveto RBavota GGrundy JPollock LPenta M(2023)Source Code Recommender Systems: The Practitioners' PerspectiveProceedings of the 45th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1109/ICSE48619.2023.00182(2161-2172)Online publication date: 14-May-2023
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Mastropaolo APascarella LGuglielmi ECiniselli MScalabrino SOliveto RBavota GGrundy JPollock LPenta M(2023)On the Robustness of Code Generation Techniques: An Empirical Study on GitHub CopilotProceedings of the 45th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1109/ICSE48619.2023.00181(2149-2160)Online publication date: 14-May-2023
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Nie PBanerjee RLi JMooney RGligoric MGrundy JPollock LPenta M(2023)Learning Deep Semantics for Test CompletionProceedings of the 45th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1109/ICSE48619.2023.00178(2111-2123)Online publication date: 14-May-2023
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Wang YLin YWan ZYang XGrundy J(2023)Task Context: A Tool for Predicting Code Context Models for Software Development TasksProceedings of the 45th International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings10.1109/ICSE-Companion58688.2023.00045(156-160)Online publication date: 14-May-2023
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