English
Related papers

Related papers: Mutation Testing as a Safety Net for Test Code Ref…

200 papers

Many software systems originate as prototypes or minimum viable products (MVPs), developed with an emphasis on delivery speed and responsiveness to changing requirements rather than long-term code maintainability. While effective for rapid…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2026-04-06 Ema Smolic , Mario Brcic , Luka Hobor , Mihael Kovac

Programming problems can be solved in a multitude of functionally correct ways, but the quality of these solutions (e.g. readability, maintainability) can vary immensely. When code quality is poor, symptoms emerge in the form of 'code…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2024-03-11 Ivan Tan , Christopher M. Poskitt

Traditionally, mutation testing generates an abundance of small deviations of a program, called mutants. At industrial systems the scale and size of Facebook's, doing this is infeasible. We should not create mutants that the test suite…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2021-01-28 Moritz Beller , Chu-Pan Wong , Johannes Bader , Andrew Scott , Mateusz Machalica , Satish Chandra , Erik Meijer

To refactor already working code while keeping reliability, compatibility and perhaps security, we can borrow ideas from micropass/nanopass compilers. By treating the procedure of software refactoring as composing code transformations, and…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2023-08-15 Yu Liu

Most integrated development environments are shipped with refactoring tools. However, their refactoring operations are often known to be unreliable. As a consequence, developers have to test their code after applying an automatic…

Programming Languages · Computer Science 2016-07-11 Julien Cohen

Refactoring is a maintenance activity that aims to improve design quality while preserving the behavior of a system. Several (semi)automated approaches have been proposed to support developers in this maintenance activity, based on the…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2019-05-20 Rodrigo Morales , Foutse Khomh , Giuliano Antoniol

This paper presents our approach to use refactoring techniques together with code generation. Refactoring is particularly useful if not only the generated classes but also the generator itself can be adapted in an automatic fashion. We have…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2014-09-24 Holger Krahn , Bernhard Rumpe

Modern code review is a common and essential practice employed in both industrial and open-source projects to improve software quality, share knowledge, and ensure conformance with coding standards. During code review, developers may…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2021-02-11 Eman Abdullah AlOmar , Hussein AlRubaye , Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer , Ali Ouni , Marouane Kessentini

Mutation testing is a well-established technique for assessing a test suite's quality by injecting artificial faults into production code. In recent years, mutation testing has been extended to machine learning (ML) systems, and deep…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2021-03-03 Annibale Panichella , Cynthia C. S. Liem

To create unit tests, it may be necessary to refactor the production code, e.g. by widening access to specific methods or by decomposing classes into smaller units that are easier to test independently. We report on an extensive study to…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2023-03-28 Pavel Reich , Walid Maalej

Quantum machine learning integrates the strengths of quantum computing and machine learning, enabling models to learn complex features using fewer parameters than their classical counterparts. Due to the increasing complexity of quantum…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-05-04 Emma Andrews , Prabhat Mishra

Testing is an important aspect in professional software development, both to avoid and identify bugs as well as to increase maintainability. However, increasing the number of tests beyond a reasonable amount hinders development progress. To…

Programming Languages · Computer Science 2022-05-23 Alexandros Efremidis , Joshua Schmidt , Sebastian Krings , Philipp Körner

Context: Performance regressions negatively impact execution time and memory usage of software systems. Nevertheless, there is a lack of systematic methods to evaluate the effectiveness of performance test suites. Performance mutation…

Modern code review is a widely used technique employed in both industrial and open-source projects to improve software quality, share knowledge, and ensure adherence to coding standards and guidelines. During code review, developers may…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2022-03-29 Eman Abdullah AlOmar , Moataz Chouchen , Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer , Ali Ouni

Large language model (LLM) coding agents can generate working code, but their solutions often accumulate complexity, duplication, and architectural debt. Human developers address such issues through refactoring: behavior-preserving program…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2026-03-05 Alex Thillen , Niels Mündler , Veselin Raychev , Martin Vechev

Refactoring is the process of restructuring existing code without changing its external behavior while improving its internal structure. Refactoring engines are integral components of modern Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) and…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2025-07-10 Haibo Wang , Zhuolin Xu , Shin Hwei Tan

Software testing is the important phase of software development process. But, this phase can be easily missed by software developers because of their limited time to complete the project. Since, software developers finish their software…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2010-02-11 Mrs. R. Jeevarathinam , Dr. Antony Selvadoss Thanamani

Model-based mutation testing uses altered test models to derive test cases that are able to reveal whether a modelled fault has been implemented. This requires conformance checking between the original and the mutated model. This paper…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2012-02-29 Bernhard K. Aichernig , Elisabeth Jöbstl

Refactoring is a critical process in software development, aiming at improving the internal structure of code while preserving its external behavior. Refactoring engines are integral components of modern Integrated Development Environments…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2024-09-24 Haibo Wang , Zhuolin Xu , Huaien Zhang , Nikolaos Tsantalis , Shin Hwei Tan

Refactoring is the practice of improving software quality without altering its external behavior. Developers intuitively refactor their code for multiple purposes, such as improving program comprehension, reducing code complexity, dealing…

Computers and Society · Computer Science 2023-11-21 Eman Abdullah AlOmar , Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer , Ali Ouni