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research-article

Concept location using program dependencies and information retrieval (DepIR)

Authors:

Maksym Petrenko,

Václav RajlichAuthors Info & Claims

Information and Software Technology, Volume 55, Issue 4

Pages 651 - 659

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2012.09.013

Published: 01 April 2013 Publication History

Abstract

ContextThe functionality of a software system is most often expressed in terms of concepts from its problem or solution domains. The process of finding where these concepts are implemented in the source code is known as concept location and it is a prerequisite of software change. ObjectiveWe investigate a static approach to concept location named DepIR that combines program dependency search (DepS) with information retrieval-based search (IR). In this approach, programmers explore the static program dependencies of the source code components retrieved by the IR search engine. MethodThe paper presents an empirical study that compares DepIR with its constituent techniques. The evaluation is based on an empirical method of reenactment that emulates the steps of concept location for 50 past changes mined from software repositories of five software systems. ResultsThe results of the study indicate that DepIR significantly outperforms both DepS and IR. ConclusionDepIR allows developers to perform concept location efficiently. It allows finding concepts even with queries that do not rank the relevant software components highly. Since formulating a good query is not always easy, this tolerance of lower-quality queries significantly broadens the usability of DepIR compared to the traditional IR.

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Yu HLou YSun KRan DXie THao DLi YLi GWang QDwyer MDamian DZeller A(2022)Automated assertion generation via information retrieval and its integration with deep learningProceedings of the 44th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/3510003.3510149(163-174)Online publication date: 21-May-2022
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Dilshener TWermelinger MYu Y(2018)Locating bugs without looking backAutomated Software Engineering10.1007/s10515-017-0226-125:3(383-434)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10515-017-0226-1
(2017)A historical, textual analysis approach to feature locationInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2017.04.00388:C(110-126)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2017
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cover image Information and Software Technology

Information and Software Technology Volume 55, Issue 4

April, 2013

126 pages

ISSN:0950-5849

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © Elsevier B.V.

Publisher

Butterworth-Heinemann

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 April 2013

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Yu HLou YSun KRan DXie THao DLi YLi GWang QDwyer MDamian DZeller A(2022)Automated assertion generation via information retrieval and its integration with deep learningProceedings of the 44th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/3510003.3510149(163-174)Online publication date: 21-May-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3510003.3510149
Dilshener TWermelinger MYu Y(2018)Locating bugs without looking backAutomated Software Engineering10.1007/s10515-017-0226-125:3(383-434)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10515-017-0226-1
(2017)A historical, textual analysis approach to feature locationInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2017.04.00388:C(110-126)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.infsof.2017.04.003
Buckley JRosik JHerold SWasala ABotterweck GExton CBahsoon RWeinreich R(2016)FLINTSProccedings of the 10th European Conference on Software Architecture Workshops10.1145/2993412.3003390(1-7)Online publication date: 28-Nov-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2993412.3003390
Hill EShepherd DPollock LDe Lucia ABird COliveto R(2015)Exploring the use of concern element role information in feature location evaluationProceedings of the 2015 IEEE 23rd International Conference on Program Comprehension10.5555/2820282.2820303(140-150)Online publication date: 16-May-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2820282.2820303
Kim DKwon YSumner WZhang XXu D(2015)Dual Execution for On the Fly Fine Grained Execution ComparisonACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News10.1145/2786763.269439443:1(325-338)Online publication date: 14-Mar-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2786763.2694394
Kim DKwon YSumner WZhang XXu D(2015)Dual Execution for On the Fly Fine Grained Execution ComparisonACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/2775054.269439450:4(325-338)Online publication date: 14-Mar-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2775054.2694394
Kim DKwon YSumner WZhang XXu DOzturk OEbcioglu KDwarkadas S(2015)Dual Execution for On the Fly Fine Grained Execution ComparisonProceedings of the Twentieth International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems10.1145/2694344.2694394(325-338)Online publication date: 14-Mar-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2694344.2694394
Scanniello GMarcus APascale D(2015)Link analysis algorithms for static concept locationEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-014-9327-720:6(1666-1720)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-014-9327-7
Rajlich VHerbsleb JDwyer MHerbsleb J(2014)Software evolution and maintenanceFuture of Software Engineering Proceedings10.1145/2593882.2593893(133-144)Online publication date: 31-May-2014
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