Arts and Science, Faculty of

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Browsing Arts and Science, Faculty of by Subject "Ability--Evaluation"

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    Measuring developer experience with abstract syntax trees
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Mathematics and Computer Science, 2023) Deutekom, Steven M.; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science; Rice, Jacqueline E.; Anvik, John
    Accurately representing a developer's programming knowledge and experience is difficult. Traditional metrics rely on counting the number of times a developer has used or made changes to pieces of code. When a developer has modified a file in the past they are less likely to introduce defects with a change. However, these metrics do not contain any general information on the structure or purpose of a piece of code and are only useful when developers work on a piece of code more than once. We investigated the use of several new metrics based on abstract syntax trees (ASTs) as a possible way to more completely measure a developer's experience. By using the ASTs of code previously modified by a developer we may be able to identify their experience with a piece of code they are modifying even if they have never modified that specific code before. Through statistical analysis and machine learning predictions we show that AST-based metrics capture a more general programming experience than count-based metrics. In their current form, AST-based metrics do not offer any significant improvements over existing metrics for defect prediction. However, our work offers a starting point for future use of ASTs for representation of knowledge and experience in defect prediction and other relevant areas.