@inproceedings{a2eba078acd943dc860f181a0f789fcd,
title = "An Exploratory Study on the Evolution of C Programming in the Unix Operating System",
abstract = "Context: Numerous factors drive long term progress in programming practices. Goal: We study the evolution of C programming in the Unix operating system. Method: We extract, aggregate, and synthesize metrics from 66 snapshots obtained from an artificial software configuration management repository tracking the evolution of the Unix operating system over four decades. Results: C language programming practices appear to evolve over long term periods; our study identified some continuous trends with highly significant coefficients of determination. Many trends point toward increasing code quality through adherence to numerous programming guidelines, while some others indicate adoption that has reached maturity. In the area of commenting progress appears to have stalled. Conclusions: Studying the long term evolution of programming practices identifies areas where progress has been achieved along an expected path, as well as cases where there is room for improvement.",
keywords = "Guidelines, Long Term Evolution, Market research, Measurement, Operating systems, Programming",
author = "Diomidis Spinellis and Panagiotis Louridas and Maria Kechagia",
year = "2015",
month = nov,
day = "5",
doi = "10.1109/ESEM.2015.7321190",
language = "English",
series = "International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement",
publisher = "IEEE",
pages = "54--57",
booktitle = "2015 ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, ESEM 2015 - Proceedings",
address = "United States",
note = "ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, ESEM 2015 ; Conference date: 22-10-2015 Through 23-10-2015",
}