An investigation of Java abstraction usage for program modifications

This paper reports upon the results of an investigation concerning the use and type of Java abstractions employed during software maintenance. The source of data consists of eighty-eight program summaries extracted from online developer mailing lists. Specifically, the summaries describing modifications, thirty-six in total, were examined from the perspective of five task types, including adaptive, corrective, emergency, perfective and preventive. Corrective and perfective task types were the two most commonly found. Abstractions are examined per task type and are also presented in three sequential stages as beginning, middle and end of the summaries. The results show that middle (within program level) abstractions dominate each task type, with the higher (system and architecture level) and lower (code and Java virtual machine level) abstractions following respectively. The results detail the type of abstractions used in each task type and summarise the abstractions found for modifications in general with potential applications to support the design of Java software visualisation tools.