Towards a Model to Appraise and Suggest Identifier Names
This addresses a domain-specific issue for software developers, but the work is incremental as it builds on existing research without presenting a fully developed model or results.
The study tackled the problem of ambiguous identifier names in software code, which reduces developer productivity, by proposing a linguistic model to determine names based on identifier behavior, with findings from initial studies justifying further research.
Unknowingly, identifiers in the source code of a software system play a vital role in determining the quality of the system. Ambiguous and confusing identifier names lead developers to not only misunderstand the behavior of the code but also increases comprehension time and thereby causes a loss in productivity. Even though correcting poor names through rename operations is a viable option for solving this problem, renaming itself is an act of rework and is not immune to defect injection. In this study, we aim to understand the motivations that drive developers to name and rename identifiers and the decisions they make in determining the name. Using our results, we propose the development of a linguistic model that determines identifier names based on the behavior of the identifier. As a prerequisite to constructing the model, we conduct multiple studies to determine the features that should feed into the model. In this paper, we discuss findings from our completed studies and justify the continuation of research on this topic through further studies.