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Software Quality Journal
Erschienen in: Software Quality Journal 2/2020

29.11.2019

What are the characteristics of popular APIs? A large-scale study on Java, Android, and 165 libraries

verfasst von: Caroline Lima, Andre Hora

Erschienen in: Software Quality Journal | Ausgabe 2/2020

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Abstract

Software systems are commonly implemented with the support of libraries, which provide features via APIs. Ideally, APIs should have some characteristics, for example, they should be well documented and stable so that client systems can confidently rely on them. However, not all APIs are equal in number of clients: while some APIs are very popular and used worldwide, other may face much lower usage rates. In this context, one question appears: are there particular characteristics that differentiate popular APIs from ordinary APIs? Answering this question can uncover how worldwide APIs are actually implemented and maintained, revealing practices to better support both research and development on APIs. In this paper, we assess the characteristics of popular APIs, including their size, legibility, documentation, stability, and client adoption. We analyze 1491 APIs provided by Java, Android, and 165 libraries. We detect that popular APIs are distinct from ordinary ones, for example, often, popular APIs are larger, have more comments, and are more unstable than ordinary APIs. Finally, we provide a set of lessons learned from the popular APIs on factors that developers can control, such as the exposure of public methods and the API stability.
Vorheriger Artikel Enhanced regression testing technique for agile software development and continuous integration strategies
Nächster Artikel Automatic software refactoring: a systematic literature review

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Fußnoten
1
We use the term library to designate both frameworks and libraries.
 
5
aosp-mirror/platform_frameworks_base and aosp-mirror/platform_frameworks_support
 
7
Lifetime is computed as the number of days between the first commit and the day of the analysis.
 
9
Command: git log --pretty=format:"%H,%an,%ai" $API
 
10
Command: hg log -f $API
 
11
The total API changes include both the breaking changes (e.g., a removed public method) and the non-breaking changes (e.g., an added public method) (Brito et al. 2018a).
 
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Metadaten
Titel
What are the characteristics of popular APIs? A large-scale study on Java, Android, and 165 libraries
verfasst von
Caroline Lima
Andre Hora
Publikationsdatum
29.11.2019
Verlag
Springer US
Erschienen in
Software Quality Journal / Ausgabe 2/2020
Print ISSN: 0963-9314
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-1367
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11219-019-09476-z

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