Clone-advisor: recommending code tokens and clone methods with deep learning and information retrieval

Software developers frequently reuse source code from repositories as it saves development time and effort. Code clones (similar code fragments) accumulated in these repositories represent often repeated functionalities and are candidates for reuse in an exploratory or rapid development. To facilitate code clone reuse, we previously presented DeepClone, a novel deep learning approach for modeling code clones along with non-cloned code to predict the next set of tokens (possibly a complete clone method body) based on the code written so far. The probabilistic nature of language modeling, however, can lead to code output with minor syntax or logic errors. To resolve this, we propose a novel approach called Clone-Advisor. We apply an information retrieval technique on top of DeepClone output to recommend real clone methods closely matching the predicted clone method, thus improving the original output by DeepClone. In this paper we have discussed and refined our previous work on DeepClone in much more detail. Moreover, we have quantitatively evaluated the performance and effectiveness of Clone-Advisor in clone method recommendation.

What do class comments tell us? An investigation of comment evolution and practices in Pharo Smalltalk

Context Previous studies have characterized code comments in various programming languages, showing how high quality of code comments is crucial to support program comprehension activities, and to improve the effectiveness of maintenance tasks. However, very few studies have focused on understanding developer practices to write comments. None of them has compared such developer practices to the standard comment guidelines to study the extent to which developers follow the guidelines. Objective Therefore, our goal is to investigate developer commenting practices and compare them to the comment guidelines. Method This paper reports the first empirical study investigating commenting practices in Pharo Smalltalk. First, we analyze class comment evolution over seven Pharo versions. Then, we quantitatively and qualitatively investigate the information types embedded in class comments. Finally, we study the adherence of developer commenting practices to the official class comment template over Pharo versions. Results Our results show that there is a rapid increase in class comments in the initial three Pharo versions, while in subsequent versions developers added comments to both new and old classes, thus maintaining a similar code to comment ratio. We furthermore found three times as many information types in class comments as those suggested by the template. However, the information types suggested by the template tend to be present more often than other types of information. Additionally, we find that a substantial proportion of comments follow the writing style of the template in writing these information types, but they are written and formatted in a non-uniform way. Conclusion The results suggest the need to standardize the commenting guidelines for formatting the text, and to provide headers for the different information types to ensure a consistent style and to identify the information easily. Given the importance of high-quality code comments, we draw numerous implications for developers and researchers to improve the support for comment quality assessment tools.

Estimation and Analysis of the Observable-Specific Code Biases Estimated Using Multi-GNSS Observations and Global Ionospheric Maps

Observable-specific bias (OSB) parameterization allows observation biases belonging to various signal types to be flexibly addressed in the estimation of ionosphere and global navigation satellite system (GNSS) clock products. In this contribution, multi-GNSS OSBs are generated by two different methods. With regard to the first method, geometry-free (GF) linear combinations of the pseudorange and carrier-phase observations of a global multi-GNSS receiver network are formed for the extraction of OSB observables, and global ionospheric maps (GIMs) are employed to correct ionospheric path delays. Concerning the second method, satellite and receiver OSBs are converted directly from external differential code bias (DCB) products. Two assumptions are employed in the two methods to distinguish satellite- and receiver-specific OSB parameters. The first assumption is a zero-mean condition for each satellite OSB type and GNSS signal. The second assumption involves ionosphere-free (IF) linear combination signal constraints for satellites and receivers between two signals, which are compatible with the International GNSS Service (IGS) clock product. Agreement between the multi-GNSS satellite OSBs estimated by the two methods and those from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is shown at levels of 0.15 ns and 0.1 ns, respectively. The results from observations spanning 6 months show that the multi-GNSS OSB estimates for signals in the same frequency bands may have very similar code bias characteristics, and the receiver OSB estimates present larger standard deviations (STDs) than the satellite OSB estimates. Additionally, the variations in the receiver OSB estimates are shown to be related to the types of receivers and antennas and the firmware version. The results also indicate that the root mean square (RMS) of the differences between the OSBs estimated based on the CAS- and German Aerospace Center (DLR)-provided DCB products are 0.32 ns for the global positioning system (GPS), 0.45 ns for the BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS), 0.39 ns for GLONASS and 0.22 ns for Galileo.

Comparative Study on seismic analysis and Retrofitting of an Existing Building

The target of this undertaking is to examine and comprehend the impact of utilizing retrofitting strategies on a structure against the seismic unique burden. The investigation is completed on four models of a G+4 building. Model 1 was not exposed to any seismic burden and was discovered to be protected against the arrangement load and live burden and its blend. Model 2 was exposed to dynamic seismic burden and its mix and the disappointment of primary individuals was noted. Accordingly retrofitting was done in the following two models. In Model 3 the structure was retrofitted with bracings were as in Model 4 section jacketing and in Model 5 shear divider were utilized. Boundaries like removal, time history, firmness and base shear were chosen subsequent to leading a careful writing audit. Time-frame of the structure was ascertain according to IS1893-2016, and Zone factor was chosen as 0.1 and 0.16 alongside significance factor as 1 and Soil type as II from a similar code. Then, at that point the same static examination and reaction range investigation was completed on Models 2,3,4 and 5 individually and there results were arranged. In light of the outcomes acquired for the given boundaries and dynamic stacking condition it was reasoned that retrofitting the structure will in general decrease the impacts of dynamic stacking on the design. Further it was noticed that retrofitting the structure with shear divider gave the best suitable outcomes. As it diminished the time-frame of the structure by 32.72% and furthermore lessen the sidelong relocation and story float in both X and Y heading by a decent edge.

A Microservice Decomposition Method Through Using Distributed Representation of Source Code

This research proposed a novel decomposition method for refactoring monolithic applications into microservices applications using a neural network model (code2vec) for creating code embeddings from the monolithic application source code. As a Result, semantically similar code embeddings are clustered through a hierarchical clustering algorithm to produce microservices candidates to resemble the domain model more efficiently. The quality characteristics of the results were measured using two metrics for measuring cohesion. These metrics were Cohesion at Message Level (CHM) and Cohesion at Domain Level (CHD). Also, four applications were used as test cases with different sizes ranging from small to big applications. The proposed method showed promising results in terms of cohesion when compared to other decomposition methods. The proposed method scored better scores in 5 out of 8 tests compared to other methods. Also, averaged CHD and CHM results were 0.52 and 0.76, respectively, for the proposed method, better results when compared to the other methods.

Using Code Generators when Creating Ready-Made Templates for Application Development

Code generation is basically about writing programs that write programs. Given today’s complex code-intensive frameworks, such as Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), Microsoft’s. NET and Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), it is becoming increasingly important that we use our skills to create programs which aid us in developing our applications. Generally speaking, the more complex the framework is, the more appealing you will find a code generation solution. Many object-oriented programming (OOP) languages lack reusability and flexibility, and require a similar code to be written repeatedly. This paper reviews the code generators that are most useful for implementation in applications for automatic code generations, their pros and cons, where they are most widely used nowadays, as well as their versatility. In Visual Studio we use the term “scaffolding” when we want to generate identities automatically. When we start a new ASP.NET project, it genrates a template where we start from.

Tracing the roots of phonetic variation in East Asian Englishes through loan phonology

One key aspect of Englishes in the Kachruvian Expanding Circle concerns phonetic features as they commonly bear traits of speakers native languages. This article explores language contact phenomena that are likely to cause L1L2 phonological transfer, which underlies the phonetic specificity of English in East Asia. Drawing on the general theory of loan phonology, the author treats phonographic adaptation of English loanwords in East Asian languages compared to Russian, as a reliable source of data that supports research on the nature of phonetic variation in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Russian Englishes. The data were obtained through comparative analysis of English loanwords (200 for each language) selected from dictionary sources and speech samples from the Russian-Asian Corpus of English which was collected in earlier research. The findings confirm typological correlation of phonological transfer in loanword phonographic adaptation and in foreign language phonology. In both linguistic contexts, a crucial role is played by syllabic constraints, because being the fundamental unit of any phonological system, a syllable serves a domain of its segmental and suprasegmental features. Consequently, various resyllabification phenomena occur in English borrowings in the languages of East Asia whose phonological typology is distant from that of English; as a demonstration of this same conflict, the syllabic and, hence, rhythmic organization of East Asian Englishes tends to exhibit similar code-copying variation. The greater typological proximity of English and Russian syllable regulations leads to fewer manifestations of syllabic and rhythmic restructuring in both loanword adaptations and English spoken by native speakers of Russian.