A Study of
Visual Studio Usage
in Practice
Sven Amann, Sebastian Proksch, Sarah Nadi, and Mira Mezini
Technische Universität Darmstadt
Germany

RQ1
How does the average
developer spend his in-IDE time?
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RQ2
How does IDE usage
differ between IDEs?

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Murphy et al.
Beller et al.
Minelli et al.
Amann et al.

Tracking
IDE Usage

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clicks
shortcuts
typing
windows &
documents
screen lock
mouse
moves
5570 downloads

pilot phase
(2 months)
main study phase
(4 months)
5,021h
1,255h
588
2,009h
3.505.858
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Interactions
Activities
from
to

8

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Navigation
Code Edit
& Execution
IDE Configuration
Project Management Building Other
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?

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Outside IDE
Away
In-IDE
Inactivity
Away
5 min
Short
Inactivity
Long
Inactivity

The
Average
Developer

Outside IDE
(39.8%)
Long
Inactivity
(20.2%)
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Active IDE
Interaction
(25%)
Short
Inactivity
(15%)
Developers have many very short inactivities
and a few long, break-like inactivities.
Developers spend
much time outside
the IDE, potentially
using external tools.

Active IDE
Interaction
(25%)
Short
Inactivity
(15%)
Active IDE
Interaction
(62.4%)
Short
Inactivity
(37.6%)
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Kersten et al.
~2h
Minelli et al.
66%

Active IDE
Interaction
(25%)
Short
Inactivity
(15%)
Short
Inactivity
(37.6%)
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22.4%
The amount of navigation is
a likely indicator for the need
for code understanding

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We observe interesting,
unexpected developer
behavior.
Some usage aspects
differ significantly across
IDEs.
Consider and look into the causes of our
findings when building next-generation IDEs!

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Thanks for you attention.
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Questions?