Change-based software evolution

Software evolution research is limited by the amount of information available to researchers: Current version con-trol tools do not store all the information generated by de-velopers. They do not record every intermediate version of the system issued, but only snapshots taken when a devel-oper commits source code into the repository. Additionally, most software evolution analysis tools are not a part of the day-to-day programming activities, because analysis tools are resource intensive and not integrated in development environments. We propose to model development informa-tion as change operations that we retrieve directly from the programming environment the developer is using, while he is effecting changes to the system. This accurate and incre-mental information opens new ways for both developers and researchers to explore and evolve complex systems. 1