Comparative Study between Two Approaches Using Edit Operations and Code Differences to Detect Past Refactorings

Takayuki OMORI; Katsuhisa MARUYAMA

doi:10.1587/transinf.2017EDP7160

Comparative Study between Two Approaches Using Edit Operations and Code Differences to Detect Past Refactorings

Takayuki OMORI, Katsuhisa MARUYAMA

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Understanding which refactoring transformations were performed is in demand in modern software constructions. Traditionally, many researchers have been tackling understanding code changes with history data derived from version control systems. In those studies, problems of the traditional approach are pointed out, such as entanglement of multiple changes. To alleviate the problems, operation histories on IDEs' code editors are available as a new source of software evolution data nowadays. By replaying such histories, we can investigate past code changes in a fine-grained level. However, the prior studies did not provide enough evidence of their effectiveness for detecting refactoring transformations. This paper describes an experiment in which participants detect refactoring transformations performed by other participants after investigating the code changes with an operation-replay tool and diff tools. The results show that both approaches have their respective factors that pose misunderstanding and overlooking of refactoring transformations. Two negative factors on divided operations and generated compound operations were observed in the operation-based approach, whereas all the negative factors resulted from three problems on tangling, shadowing, and out-of-order of code changes in the difference-based approach. This paper also shows seven concrete examples of participants' mistakes in both approaches. These findings give us hints for improving existing tools for understanding code changes and detecting refactoring transformations.

Publication: IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information Vol.E101-D No.3 pp.644-658

Publication Date: 2018/03/01

Publicized: 2017/11/27

Online ISSN: 1745-1361

DOI: 10.1587/transinf.2017EDP7160

Type of Manuscript: PAPER

Category: Software Engineering

Authors

Takayuki OMORI
Ritsu-meikan University
Katsuhisa MARUYAMA
Ritsu-meikan University

Keyword

software evolution, fine-grained code change, understanding code change, refactoring detection

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Takayuki OMORI, Katsuhisa MARUYAMA, "Comparative Study between Two Approaches Using Edit Operations and Code Differences to Detect Past Refactorings" in IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information, vol. E101-D, no. 3, pp. 644-658, March 2018, doi: 10.1587/transinf.2017EDP7160.
Abstract: Understanding which refactoring transformations were performed is in demand in modern software constructions. Traditionally, many researchers have been tackling understanding code changes with history data derived from version control systems. In those studies, problems of the traditional approach are pointed out, such as entanglement of multiple changes. To alleviate the problems, operation histories on IDEs' code editors are available as a new source of software evolution data nowadays. By replaying such histories, we can investigate past code changes in a fine-grained level. However, the prior studies did not provide enough evidence of their effectiveness for detecting refactoring transformations. This paper describes an experiment in which participants detect refactoring transformations performed by other participants after investigating the code changes with an operation-replay tool and diff tools. The results show that both approaches have their respective factors that pose misunderstanding and overlooking of refactoring transformations. Two negative factors on divided operations and generated compound operations were observed in the operation-based approach, whereas all the negative factors resulted from three problems on tangling, shadowing, and out-of-order of code changes in the difference-based approach. This paper also shows seven concrete examples of participants' mistakes in both approaches. These findings give us hints for improving existing tools for understanding code changes and detecting refactoring transformations.
URL: https://globals.ieice.org/en_transactions/information/10.1587/transinf.2017EDP7160/_p

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@ARTICLE{e101-d_3_644,
author={Takayuki OMORI, Katsuhisa MARUYAMA, },
journal={IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information},
title={Comparative Study between Two Approaches Using Edit Operations and Code Differences to Detect Past Refactorings},
year={2018},
volume={E101-D},
number={3},
pages={644-658},
abstract={Understanding which refactoring transformations were performed is in demand in modern software constructions. Traditionally, many researchers have been tackling understanding code changes with history data derived from version control systems. In those studies, problems of the traditional approach are pointed out, such as entanglement of multiple changes. To alleviate the problems, operation histories on IDEs' code editors are available as a new source of software evolution data nowadays. By replaying such histories, we can investigate past code changes in a fine-grained level. However, the prior studies did not provide enough evidence of their effectiveness for detecting refactoring transformations. This paper describes an experiment in which participants detect refactoring transformations performed by other participants after investigating the code changes with an operation-replay tool and diff tools. The results show that both approaches have their respective factors that pose misunderstanding and overlooking of refactoring transformations. Two negative factors on divided operations and generated compound operations were observed in the operation-based approach, whereas all the negative factors resulted from three problems on tangling, shadowing, and out-of-order of code changes in the difference-based approach. This paper also shows seven concrete examples of participants' mistakes in both approaches. These findings give us hints for improving existing tools for understanding code changes and detecting refactoring transformations.},
keywords={},
doi={10.1587/transinf.2017EDP7160},
ISSN={1745-1361},
month={March},}

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TY - JOUR
TI - Comparative Study between Two Approaches Using Edit Operations and Code Differences to Detect Past Refactorings
T2 - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
SP - 644
EP - 658
AU - Takayuki OMORI
AU - Katsuhisa MARUYAMA
PY - 2018
DO - 10.1587/transinf.2017EDP7160
JO - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
SN - 1745-1361
VL - E101-D
IS - 3
JA - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
Y1 - March 2018
AB - Understanding which refactoring transformations were performed is in demand in modern software constructions. Traditionally, many researchers have been tackling understanding code changes with history data derived from version control systems. In those studies, problems of the traditional approach are pointed out, such as entanglement of multiple changes. To alleviate the problems, operation histories on IDEs' code editors are available as a new source of software evolution data nowadays. By replaying such histories, we can investigate past code changes in a fine-grained level. However, the prior studies did not provide enough evidence of their effectiveness for detecting refactoring transformations. This paper describes an experiment in which participants detect refactoring transformations performed by other participants after investigating the code changes with an operation-replay tool and diff tools. The results show that both approaches have their respective factors that pose misunderstanding and overlooking of refactoring transformations. Two negative factors on divided operations and generated compound operations were observed in the operation-based approach, whereas all the negative factors resulted from three problems on tangling, shadowing, and out-of-order of code changes in the difference-based approach. This paper also shows seven concrete examples of participants' mistakes in both approaches. These findings give us hints for improving existing tools for understanding code changes and detecting refactoring transformations.
ER -