Transferring code-clone detection and analysis to practice

Yingnong Dang, Dongmei Zhang, Song Ge, Ray Huang, Chengyun Chu, Tao Xie

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

During software development, code clones are commonly produced, in the form of a number of the same or similar code fragments spreading within one or many large code bases. Numerous research projects have been carried out on empirical studies or tool support for detecting or analyzing code clones. However, in practice, few such research projects have resulted in substantial industry adoption. In this paper, we report our experiences of transferring XIAO, a code-clone detection and analysis approach and its supporting tool, to road industrial practices: (1) shipped in Visual Studio 2012, a widely used industrial IDE, (2) deployed and intensively used at the Microsoft Security Response Center. According to our experiences, technology transfer is a rather complicated journey that needs significant efforts from both the technical aspect and social aspect. From the technical aspect, significant efforts are needed to adapt a research prototype to a product-quality tool that addresses the needs of real scenarios, to be integrated into a mainstream product or development process. From the social aspect, there are strong needs to interact with practitioners to identify killer scenarios in industrial settings, figure out the gap between a research prototype and a tool fitting the needs of real scenarios, to understand the requirements of releasing with a mainstream product, being integrated into a development process, understanding their release cadence, etc.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2017 IEEE/ACM 39th International Conference on Software Engineering
Subtitle of host publicationSoftware Engineering in Practice Track, ICSE-SEIP 2017
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages53-62
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9781538627174
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 30 2017
Event39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice Track, ICSE-SEIP 2017 - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Duration: May 20 2017May 28 2017

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2017 IEEE/ACM 39th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice Track, ICSE-SEIP 2017

Other

Other39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice Track, ICSE-SEIP 2017
Country/TerritoryArgentina
CityBuenos Aires
Period5/20/175/28/17

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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