How Does a Typical Tutorial for Mobile Development look like? - A research paper presented at the 2014 International Conference on Mining Software Repositories. Paper preprint available here: http://mobis.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/research/publications

1. How
Does
a
Typical
1
How
Does
a
Typical
for
Mobile
Development
Look
Like?
How Does a Typical
Tutorial
for Mobile Development
look like?
Rebecca Tiarks, Walid Maalej – MSR’14
Full paper mobis.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/research/publications

2. So;ware
Development
is
a
Knowledge
Work
2
Developers
spend
more
than
50%
of
their
Dme
looking
for
informaDon
[Fjeldstad
&
Hamlen
1979][Ko
et
al.
2006]
[Sillito
et
al
2007]
[Zimmermann
&
Begel
2014]

3. ?
Online
Tutorials
are
an
Important
Source
of
Knowledge
3

4. Example:
Using
the
GPS
Sensor
of
Smartphones
4

5. Research
QuesDons:
Structure
5
1.
Length:
How
long
are
tutorials?
4.
Lists
and
secDons:
How
are
structural
elements
such
as
secHons
and
lists
used
in
tutorials?
2.
Source
code:
How
much
source
code
is
in
tutorials?
3.
Images:
What
images
are
included
in
tutorials?
5.
Links:
How
many
links
are
included
in
tutorials?

6. Research
QuesDons:
EvoluDon
6
6.
EvoluDon:
Are
there
changes
in
the
tutorial
structure
between
different
revisions
of
the
system
documented
by
the
tutorial?

7. Research
QuesDons:
Content
7
7.
Topics:
Which
topics
are
covered
by
development
tutorials?
8.
Topic
popularity:
How
popular
are
the
topics
across
different
types
of
tutorials?

8. Overview
of
Research
Select Development
Platformss
Data Collection Phase
Select Official
Sites
Select Community
Sites
Query Tutorial
Sources
LDA Topic
Modeling
Statistical
Analysis
Data Analyses Phase
Image Analysis
Data Cleaning
Structure
Structure
Manual Topic
Labeling
Content
Content
Query Tutorial
Archives
8

9. Tutorial
#
tutorials
size
(#
words)
Ø
size
(#
words)
Android
community
48
108.891
2.269
Android official
91
530.528
5.830
Apple community
469
1.368.306
2.917
Apple official
557
2.013.937
3.616
Windows
community
87
62.291
716
Windows official
22
19.139
870
Research
Data
9

10. Results:
Structure
10
1.
Length:
2700
words
average
(both
community
and
official)
4.
Lists
and
secDons:
longer
(more
items)
in
official
but
more
words
per
item
in
community
2.
Source
code:
70%
of
all
tutorials
contain
source
code
3.
Images:
used
in
70%
of
tutorials
with
more
images
in
community
tutorials
5.
Links:
All
tutorials
include
links
but
the
use
of
links
to
APIs
is
heterogeneous

11. Results:
Tutorial
EvoluDon
11
Apple
Official
Windows
Official
Windows
Community
Android
Community
Andorid
Official
Apple
Community
Number
of
Words
2012
2013

12. Results:
IdenDfied
Topics
12
0%
20%
40%
60%
Community
Problems,
and
soluHons
LocaHon
services
AnimaHons
ConnecHvity
Hardware,
screens
Games
TesHng
and
debugging
Security,
and
perm.
rights
Events
and
gestures
MulHmedia
Data
storage
and
I/O
ApplicaHon
lifecycle
Dev.
environments
GUI,
layout
App
store,
deploy
Architecture
Community
Official

13. Results:
Topic
Categories
and
their
Popularity
13
Category
Topics
Pop.
offic.
Pop.
comm.
Infrastructure
and
design
Architecture,
frameworks,
applicaHon
lifecycle,
data
storage,
I/O,
security,
access,
permissions,
and
connecHvity
78%
69%
ApplicaDon
and
services
GUI,
layout,
graphics,
animaHons,
games,
mulHmedia,
locaHon,
events,
and
gestures
47%
72%
DistribuDon
&
maintenance
App
store,
deployment,
licensing,
problems/soluHons,
tesHng/debugging,
hardware
screens,
and
devices
39%
35%
Development
environments
Development
environments
14%
30%

14. Summary
14
Tutorials
are
valuable
documentaHon
and
complement
other
types
of
documentaHon.
1
Tutorials
evolve
possibly
with
the
evoluHon
of
the
system
or
pladorm
being
described.
3
Tutorials
created
by
the
community
seem
to
be
complementary
to
the
official
tutorials.
4
“Mobile”
tutorials
extensively
use
structural
elements.
Their
content
ohen
describes
design,
applicaHon
and
distribuHon.
2

15. Thank
you!
15
Prof.
Dr.
Walid
Maalej
Rebecca
Tiarks
mobis.informaHk.uni-­‐hamburg.de
University
of
Hamburg,
Germany
To
read
the
paper:
mobis.informaHk.uni-­‐hamburg.de/research/publicaHons