Fragile Base-class Problem, Problem?

Fragile Base-class Problem, Problem?. Saban�, A., Gu�h�neuc, Y., Arnaoudova, V., & Antoniol, G. Journal of Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE), 22(5):2612–2657, Springer, October, 2017. Special issue on negative results. 46 pages.

Paper abstract bibtex

The fragile base-class problem (FBCP) has been described in the literature as a consequence of ``misusing'' inheritance and composition in object-oriented programming when (re)using frameworks. Many research works have focused on preventing the FBCP by proposing alternative mechanisms for reuse, but, to the best of our knowledge, there is no previous research work studying the prevalence and impact of the FBCP in real-world software systems. The goal of our work is thus twofold: (1) assess, in different systems, the prevalence of micro-architectures, called FBCS, that could lead to two aspects of the FBCP, (2) investigate the relation between the detected occurrences and the quality of the systems in terms of change and fault proneness, and (3) assess whether there exist bugs in these systems that are related to the FBCP. We therefore perform a quantitative and a qualitative study. Quantitatively, we analyse multiple versions of seven different open-source systems that use 58 different frameworks, resulting in 301 configurations. We detect in these systems 112,263 FBCS occurrences and we analyse whether classes playing the role of sub-classes in FBCS occurrences are more change and-or fault prone than other classes. Results show that classes participating in the analysed FBCS are neither more likely to change nor more likely to have faults. Qualitatively, we conduct a survey to confirm/infirm that some bugs are related to the FBCP. The survey involves 41 participants that analyse a total of 104 bugs of three open-source systems. Results indicate that none of the analysed bugs is related to the FBCP. Thus, despite large, rigorous quantitative and qualitative studies, we must conclude that the two aspects of the FBCP that we analyse may not be as problematic in terms of change and fault-proneness as previously thought in the literature. We propose reasons why the FBCP may not be so prevalent in the analysed systems and in other systems in general.

@ARTICLE{Sabane17-EMSE-FBCS,
   AUTHOR       = {Aminata Saban� and Yann-Ga�l Gu�h�neuc and 
      Venera Arnaoudova and Giuliano Antoniol},
   JOURNAL      = {Journal of Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE)},
   TITLE        = {Fragile Base-class Problem, Problem?},
   YEAR         = {2017},
   MONTH        = {October},
   NOTE         = {Special issue on negative results. 46 pages.},
   NUMBER       = {5},
   PAGES        = {2612--2657},
   VOLUME       = {22},
   EDITOR       = {Mika V. M�ntyl� and Magne Jorgensen and Paul Ralph and 
      Hakan Erdogmus},
   KEYWORDS     = {Topic: <b>Code and design smells</b>, 
      Venue: <b>EMSE</b>},
   PUBLISHER    = {Springer},
   URL          = {http://www.ptidej.net/publications/documents/EMSE17b.doc.pdf},
   ABSTRACT     = {The fragile base-class problem (FBCP) has been described 
      in the literature as a consequence of ``misusing'' inheritance and 
      composition in object-oriented programming when (re)using frameworks. 
      Many research works have focused on preventing the FBCP by proposing 
      alternative mechanisms for reuse, but, to the best of our knowledge, 
      there is no previous research work studying the prevalence and impact 
      of the FBCP in real-world software systems. The goal of our work is 
      thus twofold: (1) assess, in different systems, the prevalence of 
      micro-architectures, called FBCS, that could lead to two aspects of 
      the FBCP, (2) investigate the relation between the detected 
      occurrences and the quality of the systems in terms of change and 
      fault proneness, and (3) assess whether there exist bugs in these 
      systems that are related to the FBCP. We therefore perform a 
      quantitative and a qualitative study. Quantitatively, we analyse 
      multiple versions of seven different open-source systems that use 58 
      different frameworks, resulting in 301 configurations. We detect in 
      these systems 112,263 FBCS occurrences and we analyse whether classes 
      playing the role of sub-classes in FBCS occurrences are more change 
      and-or fault prone than other classes. Results show that classes 
      participating in the analysed FBCS are neither more likely to change 
      nor more likely to have faults. Qualitatively, we conduct a survey to 
      confirm/infirm that some bugs are related to the FBCP. The survey 
      involves 41 participants that analyse a total of 104 bugs of three 
      open-source systems. Results indicate that none of the analysed bugs 
      is related to the FBCP. Thus, despite large, rigorous quantitative 
      and qualitative studies, we must conclude that the two aspects of the 
      FBCP that we analyse may not be as problematic in terms of change and 
      fault-proneness as previously thought in the literature. We propose 
      reasons why the FBCP may not be so prevalent in the analysed systems 
      and in other systems in general.}
}

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M�ntyl� and Magne Jorgensen and Paul Ralph and \r\n Hakan Erdogmus},\r\n KEYWORDS = {Topic: Code and design smells, \r\n Venue: EMSE},\r\n PUBLISHER = {Springer},\r\n URL = {http://www.ptidej.net/publications/documents/EMSE17b.doc.pdf},\r\n ABSTRACT = {The fragile base-class problem (FBCP) has been described \r\n in the literature as a consequence of ``misusing'' inheritance and \r\n composition in object-oriented programming when (re)using frameworks. \r\n Many research works have focused on preventing the FBCP by proposing \r\n alternative mechanisms for reuse, but, to the best of our knowledge, \r\n there is no previous research work studying the prevalence and impact \r\n of the FBCP in real-world software systems. 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