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.