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Software evolution: the lifetime of fine-grained elements
2021
PeerJ Computer Science
A model regarding the lifetime of individual source code lines or tokens can estimate maintenance effort, guide preventive maintenance, and, more broadly, identify factors that can improve the efficiency of software development. We present methods and tools that allow tracking of each line's or token's birth and death. Through them, we analyze 3.3 billion source code element lifetime events in 89 revision control repositories. Statistical analysis shows that code lines are durable, with a
doi:10.7717/peerj-cs.372
pmid:33817021
pmcid:PMC7959608
fatcat:v3yr43mxnbee7h34klnmryppf4