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Visual querying and analysis of large software repositories

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Abstract

We present a software framework for mining software repositories. Our extensible framework enables the integration of data extraction from repositories with data analysis and interactive visualization. We demonstrate the applicability of the framework by presenting several case studies performed on industry-size software repositories. In each study we use the framework to give answers to one or several software engineering questions addressing a specific project. Next, we validate the answers by comparing them with existing project documentation, by interviewing domain experts and by detailed analyses of the source code. The results show that our framework can be used both for supporting case studies on mining software repository techniques and for building end-user tools for software maintenance support.

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Notes

  1. The entire project contains more than 850 versions, but we were only interested analyzing a subperiod of its entire evolution that covered these versions.

  2. The CVSgrab tool produces full-color visualizations. These have been converted to grayscale for printing purposes.

  3. The mediator makes it possible to couple CVSgrab visualizations with both CVS and Subversion repository data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SolidSource BV, Grassavanne 14, 5658, EV Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Lucian Voinea

  2. Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 9, 9747, AG Groningen, The Netherlands

    Alexandru Telea

Authors
  1. Lucian Voinea
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  2. Alexandru Telea
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Correspondence to Lucian Voinea.

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Editors: Prof. Hassan, Prof. Diehl and Prof. Gall

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Voinea, L., Telea, A. Visual querying and analysis of large software repositories. Empir Software Eng 14, 316–340 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-008-9068-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-008-9068-6

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