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Clone Evolution and Management

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Code Clone Analysis

Abstract

Programmers tend to write code clones unintentionally, which can be easily avoided. Clone change management is a crucial issue in open-source software (OSS) and industrial software development (e.g., development of social infrastructure, financial systems, and medical equipment). When industrial software developers have to fix a defect, they must find the code clones corresponding to the code fragment, including it. To date, several studies have been conducted on the analysis of clone evolution using OSS. However, only a few studies have reported on the application of a clone change notification system to the industrial software development process of our knowledge. In this chapter, first, we introduce a system that notifies about the creation of code clones. Then, we report on our experience with the system after a 40-day long application of it in a corporation’s software development process. In the industrial application, a developer successfully identified ten unintentionally created clones that should be merged. Moreover, we introduce the improvements that were made since we released the initial version of the notification system. Besides, we demonstrate a usage scenario of the current version. The current version of Clone Notifier and its video are available at: https://github.com/s-tokui/CloneNotifier.

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Notes

  1. 1.

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  2. 2.

    https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/20181206222221.g5witbsklvqthjll@alvherre.pgsql.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Ms. Fusako Mitsuhashi and Mr. Shin’ichi Iwasaki of NEC Corporation for data collection. We also thank Yuki Yamanaka, Shogo Tokui, Mananu Sano, Seiya Numata, Kazuki Yokoi, and Katsuro Inoue of Osaka University for their contribution to Clone Notifier. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP18H04094, JP19K20240, JP20K11745.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan

    Norihiro Yoshida

  2. Kyoto Institute of Technology, Matsugasaki Hashikamicho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan

    Eunjong Choi

Authors
  1. Norihiro Yoshida
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  2. Eunjong Choi
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Correspondence to Norihiro Yoshida .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan

    Katsuro Inoue

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Chanchal K. Roy

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Yoshida, N., Choi, E. (2021). Clone Evolution and Management. In: Inoue, K., Roy, C.K. (eds) Code Clone Analysis. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1927-4_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1927-4_14

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-16-1927-4

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