Background: In modern software systems, more and more systems are written in multiple programming languages (PLs). There is no comprehensive investigation on the phenomenon of multi-programming-language (MPL) bugs, which resolution involves source files written in multiple PLs. Aim: This work investigated the characteristics of bug resolution in MPL software systems and explored the reasons why bug resolution involves multiple PLs. Method: We conducted an empirical study on 54 MPL projects selected from 655 Apache OSS projects, of which 66,932 bugs were analyzed. Results: (1) the percentage of MPL bugs (MPLBs) in the selected projects ranges from 0.17% to 42.26%, and the percentage of MPLBs for all projects as a whole is 10.01%; (2) 95.0% and 4.5% of all the MPLBs involve source files written in 2 and 3 PLs, respectively; (3) the change complexity resolution characteristics of MPLBs tend to be higher than those of single-programming-language bugs (SPLBs); (4) the open time for MPLBs is 19.52% to 529.57% significantly longer than SPLBs regarding 9 PL combinations; (5) the reopen rate of bugs involving the PL combination of JavaScript and Python reaches 20.66%; (6) we found 6 causes why the bug resolution involves multiple PLs and identified 5 cross-language calling mechanisms. Conclusion: MPLBs are related to increased development difficulty.

Thu 26 Oct

Displayed time zone: Central Time (US & Canada) change

10:30 - 12:15
1A - Fault correction and information seekingESEM Technical Papers at Rhythms 2
Chair(s): Andreas Jedlitschka Fraunhofer IESE
10:30
20m
Full-paper
What Do Infrastructure-as-Code Practitioners Discuss: An Empirical Study on Stack Overflow
ESEM Technical Papers
Mahi Begoug , Narjes Bessghaier ETS Montreal, University of Quebec, Ali Ouni ETS Montreal, University of Quebec, Eman Abdullah AlOmar Stevens Institute of Technology, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer Rochester Institute of Technology
10:50
20m
Full-paper
All For One and One For All: investigating how Global Game Jam participants seek and get help
ESEM Technical Papers
11:10
20m
Full-paper
Leveraging Evidence Theory to Improve Fault Localization: An Exploratory Study
ESEM Technical Papers
Yueke Zhang , Kevin Leach Vanderbilt University, Yu Huang Vanderbilt University
11:30
20m
Full-paper
Investigating the Impact of Bug Dependencies on Bug-fixing Time Prediction
ESEM Technical Papers
Chenglin Li , Yangyang Zhao Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Yibiao Yang Nanjing University, Yuming Zhou Nanjing University, Liming Nie , Zuohua Ding
Media Attached
11:50
20m
Full-paper
Understanding Resolution of Multi-Language Bugs: An Empirical Study on Apache Projects
ESEM Technical Papers
Zengyang Li Central China Normal University, Wenshuo Wang Central China Normal University, Sicheng Wang Central China Normal University, Peng Liang Wuhan University, China, Ran Mo Central China Normal University
Link to publication Pre-print Media Attached