Context. Software reusability mechanisms, like inheritance and delegation in Object-Oriented programming, are widely recognized as key instruments of software design. These are used to reduce the risks of source code being affected by defects, other than to reduce the effort required to maintain and evolve source code. Previous work has traditionally employed source code reuse metrics for prediction purposes, e.g., in the context of defect prediction. Objective. However, our research identifies two noticeable limitations of current literature. First, still little is known on the extent to which developers actually employ code reuse mechanisms over time. Second, it is still unclear how these mechanisms may contribute to explain defect-proneness and maintenance effort during software evolution. We aim at bridging this gap of knowledge, as an improved understanding of these aspects might provide insights into the actual support provided by these mechanisms, e.g., by suggesting whether and how to use them for prediction purposes. Method. We propose an exploratory study aiming at (1) assessing how developers use inheritance and delegation during software evolution; and (2) statistically analyze the impact of inheritance and delegation on fault proneness and maintenance effort. The study will be conducted on the commits of 17 Java projects of the DEFECTS4J dataset.
翻译:软件的可恢复性机制,如继承和以目标为导向的编程中的授权,被广泛视为软件设计的关键工具,用于减少源码受缺陷影响的风险,而不是减少维持和演变源码所需的努力; 以往的工作历来采用源码再利用指标,用于预测目的,例如,在缺陷预测方面。 目标。然而,我们的研究查明了现有文献的两个明显的局限性。第一,对于开发商在一段时间内实际使用代码再利用机制的程度,仍然鲜为人知。第二,尚不清楚这些机制如何有助于在软件演变期间解释易缺陷和维护工作。我们的目标是缩小这种知识差距,因为更好地了解这些方面,可能使人们深入了解这些机制提供的实际支持,例如,建议是否和如何将这些支持用于预测目的。方法。我们提议进行一项探索性研究,目的是(1)评估开发商在软件演变期间如何使用遗产和授权;和(2)从统计角度分析继承和授权对故障易发生率和维护努力的影响。我们将就DEFESECTES数据集的17个JA项目进行研究。