Real-Time Personalization in Adaptive IDEs

Abstract

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) are used for a varietyof software development tasks. Their complexity makes them chal-lenging to use though, especially for less experienced developers. In this paper, we outline our approach for an user-adaptive IDE that is able to track the interactions, recognize the user's intent and expertise, and provide relevant, personalized recommendations in real-time. To obtain a user model and provide recommendations, interaction data is processed in a two-stage process: first, we derive a bandit based global model of general task patterns from a dataset of labeled interactions. Second, when the user is working with the IDE, we apply a pre-trained classifier in real-time to get task labels from the user's interactions. With those and user feedback we fine-tune a local copy of the global model. As a result, we obtain a personalized user model which provides user-specific recommendations. We finally present various approaches for using these recommendations to adapt the IDE's interface. Modifications range from visual highlighting to task automation, including explanatory feedback.