On Deprecated API Usages: an Exploratory Study of Top-starred Projects on GitHub
A deprecated Application Programming Interface (API) is one that is no longer recommended to use by its original developers. While deprecated APIs (i.e., deprecated fields, methods, and classes) are still implemented, they can be removed in future implementations. Therefore, developers should not use deprecated APIs in newly written code and should update existing code so that it does not use deprecated APIs anymore. In this paper, we present the results of an exploratory Mining-Software-Repository study to gather preliminary empirical evidence on deprecated API usages in open-source Java applications. To that end, we quantitatively analyzed the commit histories of 14 applications whose software projects were top-starred on GitHub. We found that deprecated APIs usages are pretty widespread in the studied software applications; and only in half of these applications, developers remove deprecated API usages after few commits and days. Also, half of the studied applications mostly use deprecated APIs declared in their own source code, rather than using deprecated APIs that lie in third-party software. Finally, we noted that the introductions and removals of deprecated API usages are mostly the result of changes made by senior developers, rather than newcomer ones.
Wed 13 DecDisplayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change
11:00 - 12:20 | Software Testing and Quality AssuranceResearch Papers / Organization / Short Papers and Posters / Industry Papers at W211 Chair(s): Dietmar Pfahl University of Tartu | ||
11:00 10mResearch paper | An Experience in the Evaluation of Fault Prediction Research Papers Luigi Lavazza Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Sandro Morasca Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Gabriele Rotoloni | ||
11:10 10mIndustry talk | Is It the Best Solution? Testing An Optimisation Algorithm with Metamorphic Testing Industry Papers Alejandra Duque-Torres University of Tartu, Claus Klammer Software Competence Center Hagenberg, Stefan Fischer Software Competence Center Hagenberg, Dietmar Pfahl University of Tartu | ||
11:20 10mShort-paper | Impacts of Program Structures on Code Coverage of Generated Test Suites Short Papers and Posters | ||
11:30 10mResearch paper | Anomaly Detection Through Container Testing: A Survey of Company Practices Research Papers Salla Timonen University of Jyväskylä, Maha Sroor University of Jyväskylä, Rahul Mohanani University of Jyväskylä, Tommi Mikkonen University of Jyvaskyla | ||
11:40 10mShort-paper | The Effects of Soft Assertion on Spectrum-based Fault Localization Short Papers and Posters Kouhei Mihara Osaka University, Shinsuke Matsumoto Osaka University, Shinji Kusumoto Osaka University | ||
11:50 10mIndustry talk | Characterizing Requirements Smells Industry Papers | ||
12:00 10mResearch paper | Do Exceptional Behavior Tests Matter on Spectrum-based Fault Localization? Research Papers Haruka Yoshioka Osaka University, Yoshiki Higo Osaka University, Shinsuke Matsumoto Osaka University, Shinji Kusumoto Osaka University, Shinji Itoh Hitachi, Ltd., Research &Development Group, Phan Thi Thanh Huyen Hitachi, Ltd., Research &Development Group | ||
12:10 10mResearch paper | On Deprecated API Usages: an Exploratory Study of Top-starred Projects on GitHub Research Papers Pietro Cassieri University of Salerno, Simone Romano University of Salerno, Giuseppe Scanniello University of Salerno |