Clone Detector Use Questions: A List of Desirable Empirical Studies
Thomas Roy Dean, Massamiliano Di Penta, Kostas Kontogiannis, Andrew Walenstein · DROPS (Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz Center for Informatics) · 2007
Code "clones" are similar segments of code that are frequently introduced by "scavenging" existing code, that is, reusing code by copying it and adapting it for a new use. In order to scavenge the code, the developer must be aware of it already, or must find it. Little is known about how tools - particularly search tools - impact the clone construction process, nor how developers use them for this purpose. This paper lists five outstanding research questions in this area and proposes sketches of designs for five empirical studies that might be conducted to help shed light on those questions.