{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/44125"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/44125","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"CodeSkimmer: a novel visualization tool for capturing, replaying, and understanding fine-grained change in software","abstract":"Understanding change in software development is a time-intensive yet essential task. Developers must understand the evolution of code in order to properly write, revise, and refactor their own additions. Historically, version control systems were the central method for interpreting how a software project has changed over time. However, these systems are limited in the amount of information they can convey and in the ways they allow users to understand change. My thesis is a new way of understanding code change. We created CodeSkimmer, a plug-in for Eclipse that can replay every action a developer took while using the editor. The plug-in offers several ways to aid in interpreting the playback. A visualization shows users, graphically, the types of changes that occurred while social, textual, and temporal filters are provided to mark points of interest in the set of recorded operations. These interesting operations are then highlighted through automatic alteration in the playback speed as well as through different visual methods.","abstract_html":"Understanding change in software development is a time-intensive yet essential task. Developers must understand the evolution of code in order to properly write, revise, and refactor their own additions. Historically, version control systems were the central method for interpreting how a software project has changed over time. However, these systems are limited in the amount of information they can convey and in the ways they allow users to understand change. My thesis is a new way of understanding code change. We created CodeSkimmer, a plug-in for Eclipse that can replay every action a developer took while using the editor. The plug-in offers several ways to aid in interpreting the playback. A visualization shows users, graphically, the types of changes that occurred while social, textual, and temporal filters are provided to mark points of interest in the set of recorded operations. These interesting operations are then highlighted through automatic alteration in the playback speed as well as through different visual methods.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Simmons, Connor"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Computer Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Bailey, Brian P."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-05-24T21:51:25Z","date_published":"2013-05-24T21:51:25Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:33Z","subjects":["visualization","eclipse","eclipse plugin","code change","understanding change","understanding code","replay","code skimming","CodeSkimmer","code playback","user interface","playback speed","replay speed","code filter"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2013 Connor L Simmons"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44125","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Bailey, Brian P."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Simmons, Connor"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2013-05-24T21:51:25Z","2013-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Computer Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["visualization","eclipse","eclipse plugin","code change","understanding change","understanding code","replay","code skimming","CodeSkimmer","code playback","user interface","playback speed","replay speed","code filter"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2013 Connor L Simmons"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44125"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Understanding change in software development is a time-intensive yet essential task. 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