Program Comprehension in Virtual Reality

Abstract

Virtual reality is an emerging technology for various domains such as medicine, psychotherapy, architecture, and gaming. Recently, software engineering researchers have started to explore virtual reality as a tool for programmers. However, few studies examine source code comprehension in a virtual reality (VR) environment. In this paper, we explore the human experience of comprehending source code in VR. We conducted a study with 26 graduate students. We found that the programmers experienced more challenges when reading and comprehending code in VR. We found no statistically significant difference in the programmers' perceived productivity between our VR and traditional comprehension studies.