@conference {1217, title = {Trends That Affect Temporal Analysis Using SourceForge Data}, booktitle = {5th Workshop on Public Data about Software Development (WoPDaSD 2010)}, year = {2010}, note = {"In this paper we examine some of the limitations of artifact data by specifically addressing the applicability of SourceForge data to the study of project evolution." "For our analysis we examine 9,997 Production/Stable or Maintenance phase projects stored in CVS on SourceForge and extracted in October of 2006 [5]"}, abstract = {SourceForge is a valuable source of software artifact data for researchers who study project evolution and developer behavior. However, the data exhibit patterns that may bias temporal analyses. Most notable are cliff walls in project source code repository timelines, which indicate large commits that are out of character for the given project. These cliff walls often hide significant periods of development and developer collaboration{\textemdash}a threat to studies that rely on SourceForge repository data. We demonstrate how to identify these cliff walls, discuss reasons for their appearance, and propose preliminary measures for mitigating their effects in evolution-oriented studies.}, keywords = {cliff walls, committers, cvs, evolution, growth, source code, sourceforge, time, time series}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/wopdasd001.pdf}, author = {MacLean, Alexander C. and Pratt, Landon J. and Krein, Jonathan L. and Knutson, Charles D.} } @article {10.1109/HICSS.2009.1014, title = {Using Software Archaeology to Measure Knowledge Loss in Software Projects Due to Developer Turnover}, journal = {2009 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2009)}, year = {2009}, pages = {1-10}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society}, address = {Los Alamitos, CA, USA}, abstract = {Developer turnover can result in a major problem when developing software. When senior developers abandon a software project, they leave a knowledge gap that has to be managed. In addition, new (junior) developers require some time in order to achieve the desired level of productivity. In this paper, we present a methodology to measure the effect of knowledge loss due to developer turnover in software projects. For a given software project, we measure the quantity of code that has been authored by developers that do not belong to the current development team, which we define as orphaned code. Besides, we study how orphaned code is managed by the project. Our methodology is based on the concept of software archaeology, a derivation of software evolution. As case studies we have selected four FLOSS (free, libre, open source software) projects, from purely driven by volunteers to company-supported. The application of our methodology to these case studies will give insight into the turnover that these projects suffer and how they have managed it and shows that this methodology is worth being augmented in future research.}, keywords = {attrition, case study, developers, evince, evolution, gimp, growth, knowledge collaboration, lines of code, nautilus, quality, sloc, turnover}, isbn = {978-0-7695-3450-3}, doi = {http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/HICSS.2009.1014}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/07-07-08.pdf}, author = {Izquierdo-Cortazar, Daniel and Gregorio Robles and Ortega, Felipe and Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona} } @article {1120, title = {The institutions of open source software: Examining the Debian community*}, journal = {Information Economics and Policy}, volume = {20}, year = {2008}, note = {"using primary data from its mailing lists archives, handbooks written to inform potential and actual community members, and previous analyses of institutional evolution and political conflict" no discussion of which lists, how many, or when they were gathered...?[ms]}, month = {12/2008}, pages = {333 - 344}, abstract = {Free and open source software activities involve and, perhaps, evolve institutions (rules, norms and standards) that influence the formation, growth, and demise of communities. Community institutions are attractors for some individuals while discouraging other individuals from entering or continuing to participate. Their suitability may change as a community grows. This paper examines the institutions of the Debian community where issues of community identity, distribution of authority, and decentralisation have facilitated growth and development. These same institutions have also resulted in conflicts regarding community purposes and the quality and delivery of the community{\textquoteright}s output. We examine the institutional redesign undertaken to address these problems and derive implications for F/LOS communities and companies.}, keywords = {authority, COMMUNITY, conflict, debian, decentralization, growth, institutions, leadership}, issn = {01676245}, doi = {10.1016/j.infoecopol.2008.06.001}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/The_institutions_of_open_source_software-_IR.pdf}, author = {Mateos Garcia, J. and Steinmueller, W.E.} } @conference {1006, title = {Towards a Theoretical Model for Software Growth}, booktitle = {Fourth International Workshop on Mining Software Repositories (MSR{\textquoteright}07:ICSE Workshops 2007)}, year = {2007}, pages = {21 - 21}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Minneapolis, MN, USA}, abstract = {Software growth (and more broadly, software evolution) is usually considered in terms of size or complexity of source code. However in different studies, usually different metrics are used, which make it difficult to compare approaches and results. In addition, not all metrics are equally easy to calculate for a given source code, which leads to the question of which one is the easiest to calculate without losing too much information. To address both issues, in this paper present a comprehensive study, based on the analysis of about 700,000 C source code files, calculating several size and complexity metrics for all of them. For this sample, we have found double Pareto statistical distributions for all metrics considered, and a high correlation between any two of them. This would imply that any model addressing software growth should produce this Pareto distributions, and that analysis based on any of the considered metrics should show a similar pattern, provided the sample of files considered is large enough.}, keywords = {C, complexity, evolution, freebsd, growth, halstead, lines of code, loc, mccabe, metrics, scm, size, sloc, sloccount, source code}, isbn = {0-7695-2950-X}, doi = {10.1109/MSR.2007.31}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/28300021.pdf}, author = {Herraiz, Israel and Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona and Gregorio Robles} } @conference {Xinyi04fourinteresting, title = {Four Interesting Ways in Which History Can Teach Us About Software}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2004 international workshop on Mining software repositories - MSR {\textquoteright}04}, year = {2004}, month = {05/2004}, pages = {58-62}, abstract = {In this position paper, we outline four kinds of studies that we have undertaken in trying to understand various aspects of a software system{\textquoteright}s evolutionary history. In each instance, the studies have involved detailed examination of real software systems based on {\textquotedblleft}facts{\textquotedblright} extracted from various kinds of source artifact repositories, as well as the development of accompanying tools to aid in the extraction, abstraction, and comprehension processes. We briefly discuss the goals, results, and methodology of each approach.}, keywords = {ant, apache, change analysis, clone, clone detection, cvs, evolution, gcc, growth, kepler, linux, midworld, mycore, postgresql, source code, version control}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/58FourInterestingWays.pdf}, author = {Michael Godfrey and Xinyi Dong and Cory Kapser and Lijie Zou} } @conference {Wynn03organizationalstructure, title = {Organizational Structure of Open Source Projects: A Life Cycle Approach}, booktitle = {Proceedings of 7th Annual Conference of the Southern Association for Information Systems}, year = {2003}, note = {"The three graphs in Figure 2 below were taken from smoothed download counts for existing open source projects on Sourceforge.net" "A random sample of 150 open source projects will be taken from data provided by Sourceforge.net. Each project will be evaluated to determine their current life cycle stage (where possible) using download counts. Next, the project admins, developers, and several identifiable users for each evaluated project will be contacted via email to request completing a brief questionnaire to measure the current focus of the project, formal structure, division of labor, leader role, coordination, level of commitment, user success, and developer success. "}, abstract = {The structure of open source project communities is discussed in relation to the organizational life cycle. In lieu of sales figures, the download counts for each project are used to identify the life cycle stage of a random sample of open source projects. A research model is proposed that attempts to measure the fit between the life cycle stage and the specific organizational characteristics of these projects (focus, division of labor, role of the leader, level of commitment, and coordination/control) as an indicator of the success of a project as measured by the satisfaction and involvement of both developers and users.}, keywords = {division of labor, downloads, growth, interview, leadership, life cycle, lifecycle, project success, roles, sourceforge, Survey}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/wynn2004.pdf}, author = {Donald E. Wynn} } @conference {Godfrey:2001:GES:602461.602482, title = {Growth, evolution, and structural change in open source software}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Principles of Software Evolution (IWPSE 2001)}, series = {IWPSE {\textquoteright}01}, year = {2001}, note = {"We measured [linux] system size in uncommented LOC" "We also examined the growth of several other open source systems, including the VIM text editor, Eric Raymond{\textquoteright}s fetchmail utility, and the GCC compiler suite. "}, pages = {103{\textendash}106}, publisher = {ACM}, organization = {ACM}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, abstract = {Our recent work has addressed how and why software systems evolve over time, with a particular emphasis on software architecture and open source software systems [2, 3, 6]. In this position paper, we present a short summary of two recent projects. First, we have performed a case study on the evolution of the Linux kernel [3], as well as some other open source software (OSS) systems. We have found that several OSS systems appear not to obey some of "Lehman{\textquoteright}s laws" of software evolution [5, 7], and that Linux in particular is continuing to grow at a geometric rate. Currently, we are working on a detailed study of the evolution of one of the subsystems of the Linux kernel: the SCSI drivers subsystem. We have found that cloning, which is usually considered to be an indicator of lazy development and poor process, is quite common and is even considered to be a useful practice. Second, we are developing a tool called Beagle to aid software maintainers in understanding how large systems have changed over time. Beagle integrates data from various static analysis and metrics tools and provides a query engine as well as navigable visualizations. Of particular note, Beagle aims to provide help in modelling long term evolution of systems that have undergone architectural and structural change.}, keywords = {agile methods, beagle, cloning, evolution, fetchmail, gcc, growth, kernel, lehman{\textquoteright}s laws, lines of code, linux, linux kernel, loc, open source software, software architecture, software evolution, source code, structural change, supporting environments, vim}, isbn = {1-58113-508-4}, doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/602461.602482}, url = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/602461.602482}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/tu2001.pdf}, author = {Michael Godfrey and Tu, Qiang} } @conference {Godfrey:2000:EOS:850948.853411, title = {Evolution in Open Source Software: A Case Study}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM{\textquoteright}00)}, series = {ICSM {\textquoteright}00}, year = {2000}, note = {"We examined 96 kernel versions..." .c files, .h files only loc, lines of code number of functions number of modules}, pages = {131{\textendash}}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society}, organization = {IEEE Computer Society}, address = {Washington, DC, USA}, abstract = {Most studies of software evolution have been performed on systems developed within a single company using traditional management techniques. With the widespread availability of several large software systems that have been developed using an {\textquoteright}open source{\textquoteright} development approach, we now have a chance to examine these systems in detail, and see if their evolutionary narratives are significantly different from commercially developed systems. This paper summarizes our preliminary investigations into the evolution of the best known open source system: the Linux operating system kernel. Because Linux is large (over two million lines of code in the most recent version) and because its development model is not as tightly planned and managed as most industrial software processes, we had expected to find that Linux was growing more slowly as it got bigger and more complex. Instead, we have found that Linux has been growing at a super-linear rate for several years. In this paper, we explore the evolution of the Linux kernel both at the system level and within the major subsystems, and we discuss why we think Linux continues to exhibit such strong growth.}, keywords = {evolution, functions, growth, lines of code, linux, linux kernel, loc, source code}, isbn = {0-7695-0753-0}, url = {http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=850948.853411}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/godfrey00.pdf}, author = {Godfrey, Michael W. and Tu, Qiang} }