Fisheye Views of Java Source Code: An Updated LOD Algorithm

One very important aspect of computer programming is reading source code. Whilst this is a relatively simple process for sighted programmers, for blind computer programmers this presents a significant problem. Navigating through and comprehending often thousands of lines of code can be time consuming and difficult. Current development environments have many features that aid the reading of source code for sighted users, however, most of these features are visual in nature and are not translated well into audio by general screen-reader applications. Research has suggested that the use of fisheye views could aid navigation and enhance performance in program comprehension activities for blind programmers. This paper reports the results of a study into creating a better fisheye view of Java source code, by improving the method used to determine each line's 'global importance' or 'Level of Detail' (LOD). The traditional LOD determination method uses only the indentation level of a line to calculate its overall importance. This paper describes the results of the study, and suggests some of the issues which may need to be considered in developing an improved LOD calculation for programming source code.