Modeling the Ownership of Source Code Topics

Appearing in the 20th IEEE International Conference
on Program Comprehension (http://icpc12.sosy-lab.org/)

Modeling the Ownership of Source Code Topics
Christopher S. Corley, Elizabeth A. Kammer, and Nicholas A. Kraft
(University of Alabama, USA)

Abstract
Exploring linguistic topics in source code is a program comprehension activity that shows promise in helping a developer to become familiar with an unfamiliar software system. Examining ownership in source code can reveal complementary information, such as who to contact with questions regarding a source code entity, but the relationship between linguistic topics and ownership is an unexplored area. In this paper we combine software repository mining and topic modeling to measure the ownership of linguistic topics in source code. We conduct an exploratory study of the relationship between linguistic topics and ownership in source code using 10 open source Java systems. We find that classes that belong to the same linguistic topic tend to have similar ownership characteristics, which suggests that conceptually related classes often share the same owner(s). We also find that similar topics tend to share the same ownership characteristics, which suggests that the same developers own related topics.

Transcript

1. C.S. Corley, E. A. Kammer, and N. A. Kraft
   Department of Computer Science, The University of Alabama
   ICPC’12
   Modeling the Ownership
   of Source Code Topics
   

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2. Modeling the Ownership
   of Source Code Topics
   

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3. top· ic /ˈtɒpɪk/
   noun
   A matter dealt with in a text,
   discourse, or conversation;
   a subject
   

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4. Modeling the Ownership
   of Source Code Topics
   

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5. Feature location
   Aspect mining
   Traceability links
   Topics
   

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6. Modeling the Ownership
   of Source Code Topics
   

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7. own· er· ship   /ˈoʊnərˌʃɪp/
   noun
   The act, state, or right of
   possessing something
   

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11. Modeling the Ownership
    of Source Code Topics
    

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12. Expertise
    Defect prediction
    Ownership
    

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13. Modeling the Ownership
    of Source Code Topics
    

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14. Feature location
    Aspect mining
    Traceability links
    Topics
    

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15. Expertise
    Defect prediction
    Ownership
    

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16. Expertise of Topics
    Defect prediction of Topics
    Ownership
    of Topics
    

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17. Do classes that belong to the same
    linguistic topic have similar ownership
    characteristics?
    

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18. Do similar linguistic topics have similar
    ownership characteristics?
    

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19. Modeling the Ownership
    of Source Code Topics
    

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20. Topic Modeling
    

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22. System topic
    

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23. System topic
    Supertopics
    

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24. System topic
    Supertopics
    Subtopics
    

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25. System topic
    Supertopics
    Subtopics
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Documents
    

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26. Main development
    branch (trunk/)
    Revision: HEAD
    Document Extraction
    

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27. Document Extraction
    Comments, Identifiers, Literals
    Split, Normalize, Filter
    

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28. Modeling the Ownership
    of Source Code Topics
    

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29. Main development
    branch (trunk/)
    Revisions: 1 to HEAD
    Repository Mining
    

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30. View Slide

31. Ownership Profiles
    

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32. class Foo: < 4, 32, 9, 0, 0 >
    class Bar: < 0, 2, 0, 0, 0 >
    class Yak: < 1, 0, 0, 2, 2 >
    

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33. class Foo: < 4, 32, 9, 0, 0 >
    class Bar: < 0, 2, 0, 0, 0 >
    class Yak: < 1, 0, 0, 2, 2 >
    topic FooBarYak: < 5, 34, 9, 2, 2 >
    

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34. Case study
    

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35. 10 Java systems
    using Subversion
    

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36. Do classes that belong to the same
    linguistic topic have similar ownership
    characteristics?
    

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37. Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Documents
    Subtopics
    Supertopics
    System topic
    

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38. 0.0
    0.5
    1.0
    

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39. !
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    0.0
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40. !
    !
    !
    !
    !
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    0.0
    0.5
    1.0
    Ant ArgoUML CAROL GWT iText JabRef jEdit JHotDraw Subversive Vuze
    

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41. Do classes that belong to the same
    linguistic topic have similar ownership
    characteristics?
    

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42. Do classes that belong to the same
    linguistic topic have similar ownership
    characteristics?
    

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43. Do similar linguistic topics have similar
    ownership characteristics?
    

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44. Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Document
    Documents
    Subtopics
    Supertopics
    System topic
    

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45. Do similar linguistic topics have similar
    ownership characteristics?
    

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46. Do similar linguistic topics have similar
    ownership characteristics?
    

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47. Threats
    

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48. No commit
    classification
    

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49. Invalid Java files,
    PAM parameters
    

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50. Java systems on SVN
    

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51. Where to
    explore next?
    

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52. Classes within a topic have similar ownership
    Similar topics have similar ownership
    Conclusion
    

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53. Thanks!
    C.S. Corley, E. A. Kammer, and N. A. Kraft
    Department of Computer Science, The University of Alabama
    Images used: http://flic.kr/y/my4BeJ
    Modeling the Ownership
    of Source Code Topics
    History miner: http://github.com/software-eng-ua-edu/ohm
    

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54. address
    port
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    protocol
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    interface
    exception
    http
    

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55. core.networkmanager.admin.NetworkAdminASN
    core.networkmanager.admin.NetworkAdminNATDevice
    core.networkmanager.admin.NetworkAdminNetworkInterface
    core.networkmanager.admin.NetworkAdminProtocol
    core.networkmanager.admin.NetworkAdminRoutesListener
    core.networkmanager.admin.impl.NetworkAdminProtocolTester
    core.proxy.socks.impl.AESocksProxyAddressImpl
    core.util.NetUtils
    net.natpmp.NatPMPDevice
    

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56. class Foo: < 4, 32, 9, 0, 0 >
    class Bar: < 0, 2, 0, 0, 0 >
    class Yak: < 1, 0, 0, 2, 2 >
    topic FooBarYak: < 5, 34, 9, 2, 2 >
    

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57. class Foo: < 4, 32, 9, 0, 0 >
    class Bar: < 0, 2, 0, 0, 0 >
    class Yak: < 1, 0, 0, 2, 2 >
    topic FooBarYak: < 5, 34, 9, 2, 2 >
    

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58. class Foo: < 4, 32, 9, 0, 0 >
    class Bar: < 0, 2, 0, 0, 0 >
    class Yak: < 1, 0, 0, 2, 2 >
    topic FooBarYak: < 5, 34, 9, 2, 2 >
    0.956
    

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59. class Foo: < 4, 32, 9, 0, 0 >
    class Bar: < 0, 2, 0, 0, 0 >
    class Yak: < 1, 0, 0, 2, 2 >
    topic FooBarYak: < 5, 34, 9, 2, 2 >
    0.956
    

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60. class Foo: < 4, 32, 9, 0, 0 >
    class Bar: < 0, 2, 0, 0, 0 >
    class Yak: < 1, 0, 0, 2, 2 >
    topic FooBarYak: < 5, 34, 9, 2, 2 >
    0.956
    

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61. class Foo: < 4, 32, 9, 0, 0 >
    class Bar: < 0, 2, 0, 0, 0 >
    class Yak: < 1, 0, 0, 2, 2 >
    topic FooBarYak: < 5, 34, 9, 2, 2 >
    0.956
    0.04
    

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62. class Foo: < 4, 32, 9, 0, 0 >
    class Bar: < 0, 2, 0, 0, 0 >
    class Yak: < 1, 0, 0, 2, 2 >
    topic FooBarYak: < 5, 34, 9, 2, 2 >
    0.956
    0.04
    

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63. class Foo: < 4, 32, 9, 0, 0 >
    class Bar: < 0, 2, 0, 0, 0 >
    class Yak: < 1, 0, 0, 2, 2 >
    topic FooBarYak: < 5, 34, 9, 2, 2 >
    0.956
    0.04
    

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64. class Foo: < 4, 32, 9, 0, 0 >
    class Bar: < 0, 2, 0, 0, 0 >
    class Yak: < 1, 0, 0, 2, 2 >
    topic FooBarYak: < 5, 34, 9, 2, 2 >
    0.956
    0.0
    0.04
    

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65. class Foo: < 4, 32, 9, 0, 0 >
    class Bar: < 0, 2, 0, 0, 0 >
    class Yak: < 1, 0, 0, 2, 2 >
    topic FooBarYak: < 5, 34, 9, 2, 2 >
    0.956
    0.0
    0.04
    

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66. class Foo: < 4, 32, 9, 0, 0 >
    class Bar: < 0, 2, 0, 0, 0 >
    class Yak: < 1, 0, 0, 2, 2 >
    topic FooBarYak: < 5, 34, 9, 2, 2 >
    0.956
    0.0
    0.04
    0.332
    

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67. package edu.ua.eng.software.ohm;
    /* This is our Brick class. It will represent bricks
    * we can use to build things with. Bricks are cool.
    */
    class Brick {
    private int width;
    private int height;
    public Brick(int width, int height){
    // Set this brick's dimensions
    this.width = width;
    this.height = height;
    }
    public String toString(){
    return "Brick is " + width + " wide and " +
    height + " tall!";
    }
    }
    

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68. package edu.ua.eng.software.ohm;
    /* This is our Brick class. It will represent bricks
    * we can use to build things with. Bricks are cool.
    */
    class Brick {
    private int width;
    private int height;
    public Brick(int width, int height){
    // Set this brick's dimensions
    this.width = width;
    this.height = height;
    }
    public String toString(){
    return "Brick is " + width + " wide and " +
    height + " tall!";
    }
    }
    

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69. package edu.ua.eng.software.ohm;
    /* This is our Brick class. It will represent bricks
    * we can use to build things with. Bricks are cool.
    */
    class Brick {
    private int width;
    private int height;
    public Brick(int width, int height){
    // Set this brick's dimensions
    this.width = width;
    this.height = height;
    }
    public String toString(){
    return "Brick is " + width + " wide and " +
    height + " tall!";
    }
    }
    

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70. package edu.ua.eng.software.ohm;
    /* This is our Brick class. It will represent bricks
    * we can use to build things with. Bricks are cool.
    */
    class Brick {
    private int width;
    private int height;
    public Brick(int width, int height){
    // Set this brick s dimensions
    this width = width;
    this.height = height;
    }
    public String to String(){
    return "Brick is " + width + " wide and " +
    height + " tall!";
    }
    }
    

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71. package edu.ua.eng.software.ohm;
    /* this is our brick class. it will represent bricks
    * we can use to build things with. bricks are cool.
    */
    class brick{
    private int width;
    private int height;
    public brick(int width, int height){
    // set this brick s dimensions
    this width = width;
    this height = height;
    }
    public String to string(){
    return "brick is " + width + " wide and " +
    height + " tall!";
    }
    }
    

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72. package edu.ua.eng.software.ohm;
    /* this is our brick class. it will represent bricks
    * we can use to build things with. bricks are cool.
    */
    class brick{
    private int width;
    private int height;
    public brick(int width, int height){
    // set this brick s dimensions
    this width = width;
    this height = height;
    }
    public String to string(){
    return "brick is " + width + " wide and " +
    height + " tall!";
    }
    }
    

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73. brick
    represent
    bricks
    use
    build
    things
    cool
    height
    width
    set
    dimensions
    wide
    tall
    

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74. !
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76. 0.0
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