解密代码审查中的代码片段：OpenStack 和 Qt 社区研究及从业人员调查

IF 3.5 2区计算机科学 Q1 COMPUTER SCIENCE, SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Empirical Software Engineering Pub Date : 2024-06-03 DOI:10.1007/s10664-024-10484-2

Beiqi Zhang, Liming Fu, Peng Liang, Jiaxin Yu, Chong Wang

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引用次数: 0

摘要

众所周知，代码审查是软件开发中软件质量保证的最佳实践之一。在典型的代码审查过程中，审查员会检查开发人员提交的代码，以确保代码的质量，在此期间，审查员和开发人员会在审查意见中相互沟通，交流必要的信息。因此，理解审查意见中的信息是审查员和开发人员进行有效代码审查的前提。代码片段作为代码的一种特殊形式，可用于在代码审查中传递必要的信息。例如，审查员可以使用代码片段提出建议或阐述自己的想法，以满足开发人员在代码审查中的信息需求。然而，很少有研究关注在代码评审中提供代码片段的做法。为了弥补这一差距，我们开展了一项混合方法研究，以挖掘代码审查中与代码片段相关的信息和知识，从而帮助从业人员和研究人员更好地了解在代码审查中使用代码片段的情况。具体来说，我们的研究包括两个阶段：挖掘代码审查数据和开展从业人员调查。在第一阶段，我们进行了一项探索性研究，从两个流行的开发者社区（即 OpenStack 和 Qt）中挖掘代码审查数据。我们对 69,604 条评论进行了人工标注，最终确定了 3,213 条包含代码片段的评论。根据收集到的代码审查数据，我们分析了代码片段的使用程度、审查者提供代码片段的目的、开发人员对代码片段建议的接受程度，以及开发人员在代码审查中不接受代码片段建议的原因。在第二阶段，我们使用在线问卷调查了来自业界的从业人员。通过分析收到的 63 份有效回复，我们探讨了审查员提供代码片段的情况、开发人员对代码片段的态度以及开发人员希望审查员在代码审查中提供代码片段的特点。我们的结果表明(1)代码片段在代码评审中的使用频率并不高，大多数代码片段是由评审者而非开发者提供的；(2)评审者在代码评审中提供代码片段的目的是建议和引用，其中建议是主要目的；(3)大多数开发者会接受评审者的代码片段建议；(4) 开发人员在代码评审中不接受评审人员的代码片段建议的最常见原因是开发人员和评审人员的意见不一致以及评审人员的建议有缺陷；(5) 当代码比文字更能说明问题时，评审人员通常会在代码评审中提供代码片段；(6) 大多数开发人员对代码片段评论持积极态度；(7) 大多数开发人员希望评审评论中的代码片段可以理解并适合现有代码。研究结果表明，审查员可以在适当的场景下提供代码片段，以满足开发人员在代码审查中的特定信息需求，从而促进和加快代码审查过程。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

Demystifying code snippets in code reviews: a study of the OpenStack and Qt communities and a practitioner survey

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Demystifying code snippets in code reviews: a study of the OpenStack and Qt communities and a practitioner survey

Code review is widely known as one of the best practices for software quality assurance in software development. In a typical code review process, reviewers check the code committed by developers to ensure the quality of the code, during which reviewers and developers would communicate with each other in review comments to exchange necessary information. As a result, understanding the information in review comments is a prerequisite for reviewers and developers to conduct an effective code review. Code snippet, as a special form of code, can be used to convey necessary information in code reviews. For example, reviewers can use code snippets to make suggestions or elaborate their ideas to meet developers’ information needs in code reviews. However, little research has focused on the practices of providing code snippets in code reviews. To bridge this gap, we conduct a mixed-methods study to mine information and knowledge related to code snippets in code reviews, which can help practitioners and researchers get a better understanding about using code snippets in code review. Specifically, our study includes two phases: mining code review data and conducting practitioners’ survey. In Phase 1, we conducted an exploratory study to mine code review data from two popular developer communities (i.e., OpenStack and Qt). We manually labelled 69,604 review comments and finally identified 3,213 review comments that contain code snippets. Based on the code review data collected, we analyzed the extent of using code snippets, the reviewers’ purposes of providing code snippets, the developers’ acceptance of code snippet suggestions, and the reasons that developers do not accept code snippet suggestions in code reviews. In Phase 2, we used an online questionnaire to survey practitioners from industry. By analyzing the 63 valid responses we received, we explored the scenarios reviewers provide code snippets, the developers’ attitudes towards code snippets, and the characteristics of code snippets developers expect reviewers to provide in code reviews. Our results show that: (1) code snippets are not frequently used in code reviews, and most of the code snippets are provided by reviewers rather than developers; (2) the purposes of reviewers providing code snippets in code reviews are Suggestion and Citation, in which Suggestion is the main purpose; (3) most developers would accept reviewers’ code snippet suggestions; (4) the most common reasons that developers do not accept reviewers’ code snippet suggestions in code reviews are difference in the opinions between developers and reviewers and reviewer’s suggestion is flawed; (5) reviewers often provide code snippets in code reviews when code is more illustrate than words; (6) most developers hold positive attitudes towards code snippet comments; and (7) most developers expect that code snippets in review comments are understandable and fitting into existing code. The study results highlight that reviewers can provide code snippets in appropriate scenarios to meet developers’ specific information needs in code reviews, which will facilitate and accelerate the code review process.

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来源期刊

Empirical Software Engineering 工程技术-计算机：软件工程

CiteScore

8.50

自引率

12.20%

发文量

169

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： Empirical Software Engineering provides a forum for applied software engineering research with a strong empirical component, and a venue for publishing empirical results relevant to both researchers and practitioners. Empirical studies presented here usually involve the collection and analysis of data and experience that can be used to characterize, evaluate and reveal relationships between software development deliverables, practices, and technologies. Over time, it is expected that such empirical results will form a body of knowledge leading to widely accepted and well-formed theories. The journal also offers industrial experience reports detailing the application of software technologies - processes, methods, or tools - and their effectiveness in industrial settings. Empirical Software Engineering promotes the publication of industry-relevant research, to address the significant gap between research and practice.