A Framework Profile of .NET

Abstract

We develop a basic form of framework comprehension which is based on simple, reuse-related metrics for the as-implemented design and usage of frameworks. To this end, we provide a framework profile which incorporates potential reuse characteristics (e.g., specializability of types in a framework) as well as actual reuse characteristics (e.g., evidence of specialization of framework types in projects). We apply framework comprehension in an empirical study of the Microsoft .NET Framework. The approach is helpful in several contexts of software reverse and re-engineering.

Multi-dimensional exploration of API usage

“…For instance, many APIs enable nontrivial, framework-like usage [1], [28], but in the absence of actual framework-like usage, the project developer may entertain a much simpler view on the API. In the context of API evolution, an API developer consults an API's footprint to minimize changes that break actual usage or to make an impact analysis for changes.…”

A Literature Survey on Empirical Evidence in Software Engineering

“…After that, we adjusted our methodology (e.g., instead of filtering papers based on their abstract, we decided to survey all the papers) and proceeded to perform the current study in November 2012-January 2013. We used Python and Bash scripts, Google Refine tool 2 , and R project 3 to process the data. We provide online the list of the papers and results of coding 4 .…”

“…This is a survey on software engineering research with focus on the use of collections of software artifacts (corpora) to derive empirical evidence from. Such focus on corpora was triggered by our own research on specifically software reverse/re-engineering and program comprehension, e.g., studies on API or language usage [1], [2], [3], [4]-with the common use of corpora for validation in the broader sense. The survey applies to conferences that fit with this context.…”