An investigation of non-programmers´ performance with tools to support output localization

The wealth of code available through the web has the potential to dramatically change the way we learn to program. This includes inexperienced programmers, who may struggle to find code in example programs that relate to observable program features. We present a comparative study of three tools for assisting non-programmers with finding program code corresponding to a program´s graphical output. From this study we also identify a model which captures the goals inherent in non-programmers´ code search processes for this type of search task. Our results suggest a global pause marker may be an effective tool to support non-programmers´ search.