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Evaluating interactive documentation for programmers
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AI
DOI：10.1007/s10664-025-10618-0.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
Documentation for software programmers is often delivered online. Yet, its format seldom leverages interactive features supported by web technologies. Researchers have proposed techniques to include interactive elements in documents. We investigated one approach, Casdoc, to understand how programmers adapt their navigation behavior to interactive documents. During the study, participants completed programming tasks that involved an unfamiliar library. They used documents that presented information in two formats: one interactive and one traditional. We analyzed recordings of the participants' usage of the documents and their answers to a post-study questionnaire to identify strengths and limitations of the two formats. We found that the interactive format helped find answers rapidly for short factual queries, whereas the traditional format was better suited to open-ended queries that required synthesizing more information. Overall, our results show the potential of leveraging alternative formats, even within the same document, to address a broader spectrum of information needs.
Keywords:
Interactive documentation
Programming tutorial
Reading patterns
Web-based documents
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