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About this paper
Shubham Joshi
This empirical study investigates the intuitiveness of bitwise operators by measuring programmer performance, finding that specific symbolic representations significantly influence task completion times. The research demonstrates that word-based operators like 'or' and 'not' lead to faster responses compared to traditional symbols such as '|' and '-'.
Key insights
- A statistically significant linear association exists between the specific bitwise operator symbol used and the time required for task completion, rejecting the null hypothesis that no such association exists.
- While the overall complexity of bitwise operations did not uniformly increase task completion times, specific symbolic representations for certain operators demonstrably impacted intuitiveness and performance.
- Word-based operators (e.g., 'or', 'not', 'lshift') were generally associated with faster response times and lower variability compared to their traditional symbolic counterparts (e.g., '|', '-', '<-').
Summary by alphaXiv.
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