Author Entropy: A Metric for Characterization of Software Authorship Patterns

TitleAuthor Entropy: A Metric for Characterization of Software Authorship Patterns
Publication TypeConference Paper
Year of Publication2008
AuthorsTaylor, QC, Stevenson, JE, Delorey, DP, Knutson, CD
Secondary Title3rd Workshop on Public Data about Software Development (WoPDaSD 2008)
Pagination42-47
Date Published2008
Keywordsdevelopers, entropy, flossmole, sourceforge
Abstract

We propose the concept of author entropy and describe how file-level entropy measures may be used to understand and characterize authorship patterns within individual files, as well as across an entire project. As a proof of concept, we compute author entropy for 28,955 files from 33 open-source projects. We explore patterns of author entropy, identify techniques for visualizing author entropy, and propose avenues for further study.

Notes

used flossmole to get sample of SF developers

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