TY - GEN
T1 - An empirical study on evolution of API documentation
AU - Shi, Lin
AU - Zhong, Hao
AU - Xie, Tao
AU - Li, Mingshu
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - With the evolution of an API library, its documentation also evolves. The evolution of API documentation is common knowledge for programmers and library developers, but not in a quantitative form. Without such quantitative knowledge, programmers may neglect important revisions of API documentation, and library developers may not effectively improve API documentation based on its revision histories. There is a strong need to conduct a quantitative study on API documentation evolution. However, as API documentation is large in size and revisions can be complicated, it is quite challenging to conduct such a study. In this paper, we present an analysis methodology to analyze the evolution of API documentation. Based on the methodology, we conduct a quantitative study on API documentation evolution of five widely used real-world libraries. The results reveal various valuable findings, and these findings allow programmers and library developers to better understand API documentation evolution.
AB - With the evolution of an API library, its documentation also evolves. The evolution of API documentation is common knowledge for programmers and library developers, but not in a quantitative form. Without such quantitative knowledge, programmers may neglect important revisions of API documentation, and library developers may not effectively improve API documentation based on its revision histories. There is a strong need to conduct a quantitative study on API documentation evolution. However, as API documentation is large in size and revisions can be complicated, it is quite challenging to conduct such a study. In this paper, we present an analysis methodology to analyze the evolution of API documentation. Based on the methodology, we conduct a quantitative study on API documentation evolution of five widely used real-world libraries. The results reveal various valuable findings, and these findings allow programmers and library developers to better understand API documentation evolution.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79953197237&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79953197237&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-642-19811-3_29
DO - 10.1007/978-3-642-19811-3_29
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:79953197237
SN - 9783642198106
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 416
EP - 431
BT - Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering - 14th International Conference, FASE 2011, Held as Part of the Joint European Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2011, Proceedings
T2 - 14th International Conference on Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering, FASE 2011, Held as Part of the Joint European Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2011
Y2 - 26 March 2011 through 3 April 2011
ER -