Bridging the divide between API users and API developers by mining public code repositories
Maxime Lamothe · 2020
Software application programming interfaces (APIs) are a ubiquitous part of Software Engineering. The evolution of these APIs requires constant effort from their developers and users alike. API developers must constantly balance keeping their products modern whilst keeping them as stable as possible. Meanwhile, API users must continually be on the lookout to adapt to changes that could break their applications. As APIs become more numerous, users are challenged by a myriad of choices and information on which API to use. Current research attempts to provide automatic documentation, code examples, and code completion to make API evolution more scalable for users. Our work will attempt to establish practical and scalable API evolution guidelines and tools based on public code repositories, to aid both API users and API developers.