Reactive Programming with Swift Combine: An Analysis of Problems Faced by Developers on Stack Overflow

Alessandra Pereira, Kiev Gama, Carlos Zimmerle, Fernando Castor

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

Reactive programming is a programming paradigm that enables systems to automatically react to changes in data or events in a responsive and asynchronous manner, leveraging the concept of streams. The adoption of reactive programming techniques has grown significantly, particularly in developing mobile applications that demand efficient frameworks for creating adaptable and scalable systems. An example of such a framework is Combine, introduced by Apple in 2019 for Swift application development on the iOS platform. A framework that is worth mentioning is Combine, which was introduced by Apple in 2019 for Swift application development on the iOS platform. However, transitioning from imperative to reactive paradigms presents complex challenges for developers. This study aims to address the research gap that exists in Swift Combine by identifying and understanding the key challenges faced by developers when adopting and using that framework. Using a data mining approach, we analyzed questions and accepted answers from Stack Overflow related to Combine usage. Employing topic modeling with Latent Dirichlet Allocation, our analysis revealed 14 topics related to Combine usage, highlighting the most relevant and challenging aspects. These findings provide valuable insights for developers learning or incorporating Combine into their applications and serve as a reference for future studies in the field.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCBSoft 2023 - Brazilian Conference on Software
Subtitle of host publicationTheory and Practice; Proceedings of the 37th Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering, SBES 2023
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages109-115
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9798400707872
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Sept 2023
Event37th Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering, SBES 2023 - Campo Grande, Brazil
Duration: 25 Sept 202329 Sept 2023
Conference number: 37

Publication series

NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Conference

Conference37th Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering, SBES 2023
Abbreviated titleSBES 2023
Country/TerritoryBrazil
CityCampo Grande
Period25/09/2329/09/23
Otherheld in conjunction with the Brazilian Conference on Software: Theory and Practice, CBSoft 2023

Keywords

  • 2024 OA procedure
  • Stack Overflow Mining
  • Swift Combine
  • Reactive programming

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