ElectroCodeoGram…

... an Environment for Studying Programming

This page is outdated and only partly functional.

Summary

The idea behind the ElectroCodeoGram (ECG) is to record the software developer's micro-process automatically and from inside the tools the developer is using. The micro-process is the sequence of very fine steps a developer takes during his work like opening a file, running the project, or changing the code.

These steps are called MicroActivities in terms of the ECG. The MicroActivities are recorded by ECG sensors, which are usually plug-ins for the tools the developer uses.

The ECG sensors can be distributed among many applications on different machines at multiple locations. The recorded MicroActivites are collected by a server module of the ECG Lab, which is the MicroActivity collection and analysis application of the ElectroCodeoGram.

Multiple other modules are performing analysis on the collected MicroActivities. Different writer modules allow for writing the MicroActivity data along with the analysis results to various targets, like the file system or a database. The ECG can easily be extended by new analysis or writer modules.

The ElectroCodeoGram sensors can also be run in compatibility mode for the HackyStat project.

Documents

• Position paper: "ElectroCodeoGram: An Environment for Studying Programming" Workshop on "Ethnographies of Code", Lancaster University, 30-31 March 2006

Links

See the following links for more information:

• Latest Binary Release. Download the latest binary release from the project location at Berlios. This release contains the ECG Lab application, the ECG Eclipse sensor nad a configuration file. For Inline-Server install ECG as an Eclipse Feature by adding http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/ecg/update as an Update Site in Eclipse. This release contains the ECG Eclipse sensor and the ECG Lab application. The sensor is preconfigured to start and stop the ECG Lab on its own. All output, logging and "micro-process" data, goes into the "ecg_log" directory in the user's home directory.
• The research pages on Actual Processes and Micro Processes
• The ElectroCodeoGram project location with access to the latest releases, documents and repository
• The ElectroCodeoGram developer wiki with instructions and tips for developing ECG modules or core
• The thesis home page at the SoftwareEngineering workgroup which initiated ElectroCodeoGram (in German)
• The HackyStat project

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