CodeCAM: capturing programmer's reaction during coding session

Abstract

Software development has been plagued with the lack of documentation. We focus on ways to augment existing code comments with various external data sources such as a developer’s monologue or facial expression, allowing its user to track the accompanying non-textual information from a final source code. We propose CodeCAM, a framework to capture a developer’s reaction as well as its complete screenshot during a coding session as a video stream. A novel method is introduced to associate these streams with the corresponding portion of a source code. Our method does not require modifying existing tools or IDEs. We then applied facial expression analysis in attempt to capture a developer’s sentiment toward the source code during its development. Our preliminary experiments revealed that a developer tends to make a certain type of face (e.g. puzzled) when dealing with a difficult part of a program.