Revisiting Context-Based Code Smells Prioritization: On Supporting Referred Context

• DOI

Abstract

Because numerous code smells are revealed by code smell detectors, many attempts have been undertaken to mitigate related problems by prioritizing and filtering code smells. We earlier proposed a technique to prioritize code smells by leveraging the context of the developers, i.e., the modules that the developers plan to implement. Our empirical studies revealed that the results of code smells prioritized using our technique are useful to support developers' implementation on the modules they intend to change. Nonetheless, in software change processes, developers often navigate through many modules and refer to them before making actual changes. Such modules are important when considering the developers' context. Therefore, it is essential to ascertain whether our technique can also support developers on modules to which they are going to refer to make changes. We conducted an empirical study of an open source project adopting tools for recording developers' interaction history. Our results demonstrate that the code smells prioritized using our approach can also be used to support developers for modules to which developers are going to refer, irrespective of the need for modification.

BibTeX

@inproceedings{natthawute-mtd2017,
    author = {Natthawute Sae-Lim and Shinpei Hayashi and Motoshi Saeki},
    title = {Revisiting Context-Based Code Smells Prioritization: On Supporting Referred Context},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the XP 2017 Scientific Workshops},
    pages = {1--5},
    doi = {10.1145/3120459.3120463},
    year = 2017,
}