Evaluating recommended applications

ABSTRACT

Large open source software repositories are polluted with incomplete or inadequately functioning projects having scarce or poor descriptions. Developers often search these repositories to find sample applications containing implementations of relevant features. While relying on software search engines that retrieve germane applications based on direct matches between user queries and words in the descriptions (or source code files), it is difficult to warrant that retrieved applications contain functionality described by their authors in project summaries.

We propose a novel approach called K9 that helps users evaluate if recommended applications implement functionality, which is described by the authors in project summaries. Using programmers' queries describing high-level concepts (e.g., sql server, floating toolbar, or smart card), K9 uses information retrieval and program analysis techniques to evaluate recommended applications based on how they implement these high-level concepts. We conjecture that K9 will effectively support developers in evaluating functionality of the retrieved applications.

References

1. Biggerstaff, T. J., Mitbander, B. G., and Webster, D. E. The Concept Assignment Problem in Program Understanding in Proceedings of 15th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'94) (May 17--21, 1994), 482--498.
2. Cottrell, R., Walker, R., and Denzinger, J. Jigsaw: A tool for small-scale source code reuse in Proceedings of 30th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'08) (2008), 933--934.
3. Cubranic, D., Murphy, G. C., Singer, J., and Booth, K. S. Hipikat: A Project Memory for Software Development. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 31, 6 (June 2005), 446--465.
4. Henninger, S. Supporting the construction and evolution of component repositories in Proceedings of 18th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'96) (1996), 279--288.
5. Holmes, R. and Murphy, G. C. Using structural context to recommend source code examples in Proceedings of 27th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'05) (2005), 117-- 125.
6. Holmes, R. and Walker, R. Supporting the investigation and planning of pragmatic reuse tasks in Proceedings of 29th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'07) (2007), 447--457.
7. Howison, J. and Crowston, K. The perils and pitfalls of mining SourceForge in Proceedings of 1st International Workshop on Mining Software Repositories (MSR'04) (2004).
8. Little, G. and Miller, R. C. Keyword programming in java in Proceedings of 22nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE'07) (Atlanta, GA, 2007), 84--93.
9. Mandelin, D., Xu, L., Bodík, R., and Kimelman, D. Jungloid mining: helping to navigate the API jungle in Proceedings of ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI'05) (2005), 48--61.
10. Poshyvanyk, D., Guéhéneuc, Y. G., Marcus, A., Antoniol, G., and Rajlich, V. Feature Location using Probabilistic Ranking of Methods based on Execution Scenarios and Information Retrieval. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 33, 6 (June 2007), 420--432.
11. Robillard, M. Automatic Generation of Suggestions for Program Investigation in Proceedings of Joint European Software Engineering Conference and ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (Lisbon, Portugal, September, 2005), 11--20
12. Sahavechaphan, N. and Claypool, K. XSnippet: mining For sample code in Proceedings of Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications (OOPSLA'06) (2006), 413--430.
13. Shepherd, D., Fry, Z., Gibson, E., Pollock, L., and Vijay-Shanker, K. Using Natural Language Program Analysis to Locate and Understand Action-Oriented Concerns in Proceedings of International Conference on Aspect Oriented Software Development (AOSD'07) (2007), 212--224.
14. Stylos, J. and Myers, B. A. Mica: A Web-Search Tool for Finding API Components and Examples in Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (2006), 195--202.
15. Thummalapenta, S. and Xie, T. Parseweb: a Programmer Assistant for Reusing Open Source Code on the Web in Proceedings of 22nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE '07) (Atlanta, GA, 2007), 204--213.
16. Ye, Y. and Fischer, G. Reuse-Conducive Development Environments. Journal Automated Software Engineering, 12, 2 (2005), 199--235.
17. Zhao, W., Zhang, L., Liu, Y., Sun, J., and Yang, F. SNIAFL: Towards a Static Non-interactive Approach to Feature Location. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodologies (TOSEM), 15, 2 (2006), 195--226.

Index Terms

• Software and its engineering

  • Software notations and tools

    • Software libraries and repositories