NDLI: Understanding Open Source Software through Software Archaeology: The Case of Nethack

Content Provider	IEEE Xplore Digital Library
Author	Simmons, M.M. Vercellone-Smith, P. Laplante, P.A.
Copyright Year	2006
Description	Author affiliation: Penn State Univ., PA (Simmons, M.M.; Vercellone-Smith, P.; Laplante, P.A.)
Abstract	In this study open source software was examined from an archaeological perspective. The objective: to explore the evolution of a long-lived open source project with the intention of learning how code evolution has progressed over time. This investigation provides a case study of Nethack, an enormously popular open source game that has been in development for more than a decade. The goal question metric approach was employed to derive measurement goals for the evaluation of open source software (OSS) evolution in Nethack. According to Lehman's laws, the incremental growth size of successive releases tends to decline during the active life of an evolving program. Our results demonstrate that the evolution patterns observed for Nethack do not consistently conform to Lehman's laws. The growth in Nethack's tarball distribution size, as well as lines of code, exhibited a linear increase in growth in this investigation. Additionally, Lehman's laws dictate that the complexity of a system will increase as it ages. Interestingly, in Nethack, the McCabe cyclomatic complexity was found to decrease with successive releases while the Halstead complexity increased. These results suggest that while the structure complexity of Nethack declined with successive releases, the complexity of calculational logic increased. These findings raise questions concerning the evolution of other OSS applications
Sponsorship	IEEE TCSE NASA Goddard Space Flight Center NASA Software Eng Lab
Starting Page	47
Ending Page	58
File Size	141920
Page Count	12
File Format	PDF
ISBN	0769526241
ISSN	15506215
DOI	10.1109/SEW.2006.37
Language	English
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Publisher Date	2006-04-24
Publisher Place	USA
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Rights Holder	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subject Keyword	Open source software Software systems Application software Documentation Software engineering Dynamic programming Graphics Software measurement Logic Materials testing
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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