Loading...
Using changeset descriptions as a data source to assist feature location
Date
2015
Abstract
Feature location attempts to assist developers in discovering functionality in source code. Many textual feature location techniques utilize information retrieval and rely on comments and identifiers of source code to describe software entities. An interesting alternative would be to employ the changeset descriptions of the code altered in that changeset as a data source to describe such software entities. To investigate this we implement a technique utilizing changeset descriptions and conduct an empirical study to observe this technique’s overall performance. Moreover, we study how the granularity (i.e. file or method level of software entities) and changeset range inclusion (i.e. most recent or all historical changesets) affect such an approach. The results of a preliminary study with Rhino and Mylyn. Tasks systems suggest that the approach could lead to a potentially efficient feature location technique. They also suggest that it is advantageous in terms of the effort to configure the technique at method level granularity and that older changesets from older systems may reduce the effectiveness of the technique.
Supervisor
Description
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Citation
2015 IEEE 15th International Working Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation (SCAM), Bremen, Germany, 2015, pp. 51-60
Collections
Files
Loading...
Chochlov-2015_using.pdf
Adobe PDF, 269.62 KB