Toward efficient source code sharing on the web

Abstract

The Web is one of the useful references for developers to find pieces of code that represent what they need nowadays. In addition, we can find websites that contain not only source code but also detailed explanations of the code. In these websites, explanations are usually located above/-below code, thereby users, who refer to these explanations, sometimes need to scroll a (browser) window to understand pieces of code reading the corresponding explanations. As a consequence, users have to temporarily memorize code and/or the corresponding expositions, wasting extra time. On the other hand, it is common to use wiki to edit a set of code and corresponding explanations. In most wiki systems, they prepare only one window to edit code and its explanations, therefore editors usually need to scroll the window to complete editing, also consuming extra time. This paper proposes a special wiki system for reading and editing source code referring its explanations, called CodeWiki that provides multiple windows for editors to edit code and explanations. Besides, CodeWiki enables readers to click a link which will lead them to a window that contains corresponding explanations. As a consequence, readers and editors do not need to scroll a window, meaning that CodeWiki can prevent readers/editors from wasting extra time. We propose a prototype implementation of CodeWiki and show its usage.