Program comprehension of domain-specific and general-purpose languages: replication of a family of experiments using integrated development environments

Abstract

Domain-specific languages (DSLs) allow developers to write code at a higher level of abstraction compared with general-purpose languages (GPLs). Developers often use DSLs to reduce the complexity of GPLs. Our previous study found that developers performed program comprehension tasks more accurately and efficiently with DSLs than with corresponding APIs in GPLs. This study replicates our previous study to validate and extend the results when developers use IDEs to perform program comprehension tasks. We performed a dependent replication of a family of experiments. We made two specific changes to the original study: (1) participants used IDEs to perform the program comprehension tasks, to address a threat to validity in the original experiment and (2) each participant performed program comprehension tasks on either DSLs or GPLs, not both as in the original experiment. The results of the replication are consistent with and expanded the results of the original study. Developers are significantly more effective and efficient in tool-based program comprehension when using a DSL than when using a corresponding API in a GPL. The results indicate that, where a DSL is available, developers will perform program comprehension better using the DSL than when using the corresponding API in a GPL.