軟體版本歷史資料發掘以驗證開放源碼外圍參與者的學習過程

Abstract

因為程式的修改與演進過程反映軟體發展者的參與程度,版本控 制的歷史資料也呈現了發展者間的互動與軟體模組的介面關係。 基於此概念,我們以開放源碼專案(來自 sourceforge.net)為 實驗資料,利用版本控制系統的歷史紀錄,區分程式發展者的角色關 係與軟體模組的核心層次。為了呈現發展過程中的互動關係,我們將 程式發展者依照歷史紀錄與其學習過程分組,並採用「漸進式週邊參 與」(LPP)模型作為描述的方法,將軟體源碼分成「核心模組」與「非 核心模組(如「使用者介面」)」兩部份。 過去傳統上,區分軟體源碼與發展者的方法多半取決於非制式的 要素。在此論文中,我們提供發展者與模組間的關係模型,可作為分 析成員與模組間的結構。我們依此建構出發展者的網絡圖,並計算圖 上相對重要的角色關係。此網絡圖呈現核心與非核心成員的互動關係 、並核心與非核心模組的界限與介面。

Since code revisions reflect the extent of human involvement in the software development process, revision histories reveal the interactions and interfaces between developers and modules. We therefore divide developers and modules into groups according to the revision histories of the open source software repository, for example, sourceforge.net. To describe the interactions in the open source devel- opment process, we use a representative model, Legitimate Peripheral Partici- pation (LPP) [8], to divide developers into groups such as core and peripheral teams, based on the evolutionary process of learning behavior. With the conventional module relationship, we divide modules into kernel and non-kernel types (such as UI). In the past, groups of developers and modules have been partitioned naturally with informal criteria. In this work, however, we propose a developer-module relationship model to analyze the grouping structures between developers and modules. Our results show some process cases of relative importance on the constructed graph of project de- velopment. The graph reveals certain subtle relationships in the interactions between core and non-core team developers, and the interfaces between kernel and non-kernel modules.