Clean and Dirty Code Comprehension by Eye-tracking Based Evaluation using GP3 Eye Tracker

During the observation, analysis, and examination of cognitive processes, human-computer interfaces are increasingly becoming widespread. Programming could also be seen as a complex cognitive process. This study aims to examine the efficiency of the clean code paradigm and compares it to the dirty code produced without the principles formulated in this technique. In addition to the traditional knowledge level test and subjective judgment, the readability and comprehensibility of the implemented code were determined by analysing the heatmap and gaze route besides measuring and evaluating eye movement parameters. Based on the statistical evaluation, it can be stated that there is a significant difference in the average number of fixations, the average fixation time, and the average length of routes between fixations measured by studying two differently written source codes. This means that in the case of the clean code, significantly less and shorter information recording and processing were necessary to understand the code.