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MSR 2018
Mon 28 - Tue 29 May 2018 Gothenburg, Sweden
co-located with * ICSE 2018 *
Mon 28 May 2018 15:08 - 15:15 at E3 room - Programming Practice Chair(s): Romain Robbes

Previous research shows that developers spend most of their time understanding code. Despite the importance of code understandability for maintenance-related activities, an objective measure of it remains an elusive goal. Recently, Scalabrino et al. reported on an experiment with 46 Java developers designed to evaluate metrics for code understandability. The authors collected and analyzed data on more than a hundred features describing the code snippets, the developers’ experience, and the developers’ performance on a quiz designed to assess understanding. They concluded that none of the metrics considered can individually capture understandability. Expecting that understandability is better captured by a combination of multiple features, we present a reanalysis of the data from the Scalabrino et al. study, in which we use different statistical modeling techniques. Our models suggest that some computed features of code, such as those arising from syntactic structure and documentation, have a small but significant correlation with understandability. Further, we construct a binary classifier of understandability based on various interpretable code features, which has a small amount of discriminating power. Our encouraging results, based on a small data set, suggest that a useful metric of understandability could feasibly be created, but more data is needed.

Mon 28 May

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

14:00 - 15:30
Programming PracticeTechnical Papers at E3 room
Chair(s): Romain Robbes Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
14:00
17m
Full-paper
Understanding the Usage, Impact, and Adoption of Non-OSI Approved Licenses
Technical Papers
A: Rômulo Manciola Meloca UFRGS, A: Gustavo Pinto UFPA, A: Leonardo Pontes Baiser , A: Marco Mattos , A: Ivanilton Polato , A: Igor Wiese Federal University of Technology - Paraná (UTFPR), A: Daniel M. German
Pre-print
14:17
17m
Full-paper
Prevalence of Confusing Code in Software Projects - Atoms of Confusion in the Wild
Technical Papers
A: Dan Gopstein New York University, A: Hongwei Zhou , A: Phyllis Frankl , A: Justin Cappos
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
14:34
17m
Full-paper
How Swift Developers Handle Errors
Technical Papers
A: Nathan Cassee , A: Gustavo Pinto UFPA, A: Fernando Castor UFPE, A: Alexander Serebrenik Eindhoven University of Technology
Pre-print
14:51
17m
Full-paper
What are your Programming Language’s Energy-Delay Implications?
Technical Papers
A: Stefanos Georgiou Athens University of Economics and Business, A: Maria Kechagia Delft University of Technology, A: Panos Louridas , A: Diomidis Spinellis Athens University of Economics and Business
DOI Pre-print
15:08
7m
Short-paper
Automatically Assessing Code Understandability Reanalyzed: Combined Metrics Matter
Technical Papers
A: Asher Trockman University of Evansville, A: Keenen Cates , A: Mark Mozina , A: Tuan Nguyen , A: Christian Kästner Carnegie Mellon University, A: Bogdan Vasilescu Carnegie Mellon University
Pre-print Media Attached
15:15
15m
Other
Discussion phase
Technical Papers