Description

A study of how method roles evolve during the lifetime of a software system is presented. Evolution is examined by analyzing when the stereotype of a method changes. Stereotypes provide a high-level categorization of a method's behavior and role, and also provide insight into how a method interacts with its environment and carries out tasks. The study covers 50 open-source systems and 6 closed-source systems. Results show that method behavior with respect to stereotype is highly stable and constant over time. Overall, out of all the history examined, only about 10% of changes to methods result in a change in their stereotype. Examples of methods that change stereotype are further examined. A select number of these types of changes are indicators of code smells.

Date of creation, presentation, or exhibit

9-23-2018

Comments

© 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.

Document Type

Conference Paper

Department, Program, or Center

Software Engineering (GCCIS)

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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