A Change-based Approach to Software Evolution

AbstractSoftware evolution research is limited by the amount of information available to researchers: Current version control tools do not store all the information generated by developers. They do not record every intermediate version of the system issued, but only snapshots taken when a developer 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 information as change operations that we retrieve directly from the programming environment the developers are using, while they are effecting changes to the system. This accurate and incremental information opens new ways for both developers and researchers to explore and evolve complex systems