Name
Abstract | ||
|---|---|---|
Context: Mobile applications have to continuously evolve in order to meet new user requirements and technological changes. Addressing these constraints may lead to poor implementation and design choices, known code smells. Code refactoring is a key practice that is employed to ensure that the intent of a code change is properly achieved without compromising internal software quality. While previous studies have investigated the impact of refactoring on traditional code smells in desktop applications, little attention has been paid to the impact of refactoring activities in mobile application development. Objective: We aim to develop a broader understanding of the impact of refactoring activities on Android and traditional code smells in Android apps. Method: We conduct a longitudinal empirical study by analyzing the evolution history of five open-source Android apps comprising 652 releases and exhibiting a total of 9,600 refactoring operations. We consider 15 common Android smell types and 10 common traditional Object-Oriented (OO) code smell types to provide a broad overview of the relationship between refactoring and code smells. Results: We find that code smells are widespread across Android applications, but smelly classes are not particularly targeted by refactoring activities and, when they are, it is rare for refactoring to actually remove a smell. Conclusions: These somewhat surprising results indicate that it is critical to understand better the real quality issues that Android developers face, and to develop a model of code smells and refactoring that can better address their needs in practice. |
Year | DOI | Venue |
|---|---|---|
2021 | 10.1016/j.infsof.2021.106699 | Information and Software Technology |
Keywords | DocType | Volume |
Android,Refactoring,Code smells,Android smells,Empirical study | Journal | 140 |
ISSN | Citations | PageRank |
0950-5849 | 1 | 0.35 |
References | Authors | |
0 | 4 | |
Name | Order | Citations | PageRank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oumayma Hamdi | 1 | 1 | 0.35 |
| Ali Ouni 0001 | 2 | 210 | 15.67 |
| Mel Ó Cinnéide | 3 | 2 | 1.03 |
| Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer | 4 | 228 | 28.58 |