Searching, selecting, and synthesizing source code

Abstract

As a programmer writes new software, he or she may instinctively sense that certain functionality is generally or widely-enough applicable to have been implemented before. Unfortunately, programmers face major challenges when attempting to reuse this functionality: First, developers must search for source code relevant to the high-level task at hand. Second, they must select specific components from the relevant code to reuse. Third, they synthesize these components into their own software projects. Techniques exist to address specific instances of these three challenges, but these techniques do not support programmers throughout the reuse process. The goal of this research is to create a unified approach to searching, selecting, and synthesizing source code. We believe that this approach will provide programmers with crucial insight on how high-level functionality present in existing software can be reused.