Evaluating the Use of Sound in Static Program Comprehension

Abstract

Comprehension of computer programs is daunting, due in part to clutter in the software developer's visual environment and the need for frequent visual context changes. Previous research has shown that nonspeech sound can be useful in understanding the runtime behavior of a program. We explore the viability and advantages of using nonspeech sound in an ecological framework to help understand the static structure of software. We describe a novel concept for auditory display of program elements in which sounds indicate characteristics and relationships among a Java program's classes, interfaces, and methods. An empirical study employing this concept was used to evaluate 24 sighted software professionals and students performing maintenance-oriented tasks using a 2×2 crossover. Viability is strong for differentiation and characterization of software entities, less so for identification. The results suggest that sonification can be advantageous under certain conditions, though they do not indicate the overall advantage of using sound in terms of task duration at a 5% level of significance. The results uncover other findings such as differences in comprehension strategy based on the available tool environment. The participants reported enthusiasm for the idea of software sonification, mitigated by lack of familiarity with the concept and the brittleness of the tool. Limitations of the present research include restriction to particular types of comprehension tasks, a single sound mapping, a single programming language, and limited training time, but the use of sound in program comprehension shows sufficient promise for continued research.