Why are features deprecated?: An investigation into the motivation behind deprecation

Anand Ashok Sawant; Guangzhe  Huang; Gabriel Vilen; Stefan  Stojkovski; Alberto Bacchelli

doi:10.1109/ICSME.2018.00011

Why are features deprecated? An investigation into the motivation behind deprecation

Anand Ashok Sawant, Guangzhe Huang, Gabriel Vilen, Stefan Stojkovski, Alberto Bacchelli

Software Engineering

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volume › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

242 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In this study, we investigate why API producers deprecate features. Previous work has shown us that knowing the rationale behind deprecation of an API aids a consumer in deciding to react, thus hinting at a diversity of deprecation reasons. We manually analyze the Javadoc of 374 deprecated methods pertaining four mainstream Java APIs to see whether the reason behind deprecation is mentioned. We find that understanding the rationale from just the Javadoc is insufficient; hence we add other data sources such as the source code, issue tracker data and commit history. We observe 12 reasons that trigger API producers to deprecate a feature. We evaluate an automated approach to classify these motivations.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings - 2018 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2018
Editors	L. O'Conner
Place of Publication	Los Alamitos, CA
Publisher	IEEE
Pages	13-24
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-5386-7870-1
ISBN (Print)	978-1-5386-7871-8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSME.2018.00011
Publication status	Published - 27 Sep 2018
Event	ICSME 2018: 34th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution - Madrid, Spain Duration: 23 Sep 2018 → 29 Sep 2018 Conference number: 34 https://icsme2018.github.io/

Conference

Conference	ICSME 2018
Country/Territory	Spain
City	Madrid
Period	23/09/18 → 29/09/18
Internet address	https://icsme2018.github.io/

Bibliographical note

Accepted author manuscript

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1109/ICSME.2018.00011

deprecation-reasonsAccepted author manuscript, 857 KB

Cite this

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title = "Why are features deprecated?: An investigation into the motivation behind deprecation",

abstract = "In this study, we investigate why API producers deprecate features. Previous work has shown us that knowing the rationale behind deprecation of an API aids a consumer in deciding to react, thus hinting at a diversity of deprecation reasons. We manually analyze the Javadoc of 374 deprecated methods pertaining four mainstream Java APIs to see whether the reason behind deprecation is mentioned. We find that understanding the rationale from just the Javadoc is insufficient; hence we add other data sources such as the source code, issue tracker data and commit history. We observe 12 reasons that trigger API producers to deprecate a feature. We evaluate an automated approach to classify these motivations.",

author = "Sawant, {Anand Ashok} and Guangzhe Huang and Gabriel Vilen and Stefan Stojkovski and Alberto Bacchelli",

note = "Accepted author manuscript; ICSME 2018 : 34th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution ; Conference date: 23-09-2018 Through 29-09-2018",

year = "2018",

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address = "United States",

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}

Sawant, AA, Huang, G, Vilen, G, Stojkovski, S & Bacchelli, A 2018, Why are features deprecated? An investigation into the motivation behind deprecation. in L O'Conner (ed.), Proceedings - 2018 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2018. IEEE , Los Alamitos, CA, pp. 13-24, ICSME 2018, Madrid, Spain, 23/09/18. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSME.2018.00011

Why are features deprecated? An investigation into the motivation behind deprecation. / Sawant, Anand Ashok; Huang, Guangzhe ; Vilen, Gabriel; Stojkovski, Stefan ; Bacchelli, Alberto.

Proceedings - 2018 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, ICSME 2018. ed. / L. O'Conner. Los Alamitos, CA : IEEE , 2018. p. 13-24.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volume › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

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