Generating program fragments using keywords and context information

• US 9,448,772 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2013
• Issued: 09/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Gulwani, Sumit, de Halleux, Jonathan Paul, Tillmann, Nikolai, Le, Vu Minh, Su, Zhendong
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Adam
• Application Number:
  US13/931,625
• Publication Number:
  US 20140282375A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,180 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse

Abstract

A program development framework (PDF) is described herein which allows a user to produce a program in piecemeal fashion by successively specifying program fragments. The PDF creates a new program fragment by receiving keyword information from the user that describes a new program fragment, and then identifies context information that pertains to a programmatic context in which the new program fragment appears within the overall program being created. The PDF then generates a set of candidate program fragments that satisfy the keyword information and the context information, and ranks those candidate program fragments based on ranking information. At least part of the ranking information may be based on statistical information that is produced by analyzing a corpus of previous programs produced by one or more users. The PDF then provides the ranked program fragments to the user using various user-friendly presentation strategies.

Claims

1. A method performed by one or more computing devices, the method comprising:

receiving one or more keywords from a user for generating a program fragment as part of a program being created, to thereby provide keyword information;

identifying a context in which the user is generating the program fragment, to thereby provide context information;

generating a set of candidate program fragments based on at least the keyword information and the context information;

ranking the candidate program fragments to provide a set of ranked program fragments, the ranking being based at least on a prevalence of data flow in previously-created programs that include program elements appearing in the candidate program fragments, the data flow being from outputs of individual program elements in the previously-created programs that are used as inputs by other program elements in the previously-created programs; and

presenting an output presentation to the user identifying at least some of the set of ranked program fragments.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving comprises receiving said one or more keywords in response to the user invoking a search function.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving comprises receiving said one or more keywords in response to an editing action performed by the user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the context information used to generate the set of candidate program fragments identifies a global variable that has previously been defined in the program being created and that affects the program fragment.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the context information used to generate the set of candidate program fragments identifies a local variable that has previously been defined in the program being created and that affects the program fragment.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the context information used to generate the set of candidate program fragments identifies a function that has previously been defined in the program being created and that affects the program fragment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the ranking is performed based at least in part on statistical information that includes:

first statistical information that corresponds to first previously-created programs created by a user who is creating the program; and

second statistical information that corresponds to second previously-created programs created by one or more other users.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the statistical information includes frequency information, the frequency information identifying, for at least one program element, a frequency at which said at least one program element appears within a corpus of previously-created programs.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the statistical information includes selection information, the selection information identifying, for at least one program element, a prevalence at which users have selected said at least one program element in response to submitting the keyword information.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said presenting comprises providing, for a particular ranked program fragment, an indication of at least one keyword that was not used to generate the particular ranked program fragment.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said presenting comprises:

presenting a first output presentation that informs the user about a particular ranked program fragment, for a first level of confidence associated with the particular ranked program fragment; and

presenting a second output presentation that informs the user about the particular ranked program fragment, for a second level of confidence associated with the particular ranked program fragment,

wherein the second output presentation demands less interaction with the user compared to the first output presentation, and wherein the second level of confidence is greater than the first level of confidence.

12. The method of claim 11,

wherein the first output presentation lists the set of ranked program fragments, including the particular ranked program fragment, and

the second output presentation shows code corresponding to the particular ranked program fragment without requesting the user to select the particular ranked program fragment.

13. The method of claim 1, the output presentation comprising a list of ranked program fragments in ranked order based at least on ranking scores determined by the ranking.

14. The method of claim 13, the ranked order including a highest-ranked program fragment shown at the top of the list and at least one lower-ranked program fragment being shown below the highest-ranked program fragment.

15. A system comprising:

at least one processing device; and

at least one computer readable storage medium storing computer readable instructions which, when executed by the at least one processing device, cause the at least one processing device to;

receive one or more keywords from a user who wishes to generate a program fragment as part of a program being created, to thereby provide keyword information;

identify a context in which the user is generating the program fragment, to thereby provide context information, the context information specifying one or more of;

at least one global variable which affects the program fragment, said at least one global variable having been previously defined in the program being created;

at least one local variable which affects the program fragment, said at least one local variable having been previously defined in the program being created;

or

at least one function which affects the program fragment, said at least one function having been previously defined in the program being created;

generate a set of candidate program fragments based at least on the keyword information and the context information;

rank the candidate program fragments to provide a set of ranked program fragments, the candidate program fragments being ranked based at least on a prevalence of data flow in previously-created programs that include program elements appearing in the candidate program fragments, the data flow being from outputs of individual program elements in the previously-created programs that are used as inputs by other program elements in the previously-created programs; and

present an output presentation to the user identifying at least some of the set of ranked program fragments.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed by the at least one processing device, cause the at least one processing device to:

receive a user selection of a selected program fragment from the output presentation; and

insert the selected program fragment into the program being created.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed by the at least one processing device, cause the at least one processing device to:

examine the selected program fragment to identify a missing input parameter; and

insert the at least one previously-defined local variable into the missing input parameter.

18. A program creation system, implemented using one or more computing devices, the program creation system comprising:

an interface module configured to receive one or more keywords from a user who wishes to generate a program fragment as part of a program being created, to thereby provide keyword information;

a context analysis module configured to identify a context in which the user is generating the program fragment, to thereby provide context information;

a candidate program identification module configured to generate a set of candidate program fragments based on at least the keyword information and the context information; and

a ranking module configured to rank the candidate program fragments to provide a set of ranked program fragments, the candidate program fragments being ranked based at least on a prevalence of data flow in previously-created programs that include program elements appearing in the candidate program fragments, the data flow being from outputs of individual program elements in the previously-created programs that are used as inputs by other program elements in the previously-created programs,

the interface module being configured to present an output presentation to the user identifying at least some of the set of ranked program fragments.

19. The program creation system of claim 18, wherein the context information specifies one or more of:

at least one global variable which affects the program fragment, said at least one global variable having been previously defined in the program being created;

at least one local variable which affects the program fragment, said at least one local variable having been previously defined in the program being created;

or

at least one function which affects the program fragment, said at least one function having been previously defined in the program being created.

20. The program creation system of claim 18, wherein the interface module is configured to provide, for a particular ranked program fragment, an indication of at least one keyword that was not used to generate the particular ranked program fragment.