Search, stitch, view: Easing information integration in an IDE

When building a software system, software developers each contribute a flow of information that together forms the system. As they work, developers continuously consult various fragments of information to answer their questions about the system. In today´s programming environments, information is kept in disparate silos, such as program code, bugs and change sets. However, to answer the variety of questions a developer faces, the interleaving of information from multiple sources is typically needed. We have implemented a prototype that allows for the composition of information fragments from different silos. We also interviewed three experienced developers to find out about cases when they need to interleave information.