Deep code search Gu et al., ICSE'18 The problem with searching for code is that the query, e.g. "read an object from xml," doesn’t look very much like the source code snippets that are the intended results, e.g.: * That’s why we have Stack Overflow! Stack Overflow can help with ‘how to’ style queries, but … Continue reading Deep code search
Tag: Software Engineering
Mostly posts relating to software design and architecture.
To distribute or not to distribute? Why licensing bugs matter
To distribute or not to distribute? Why licensing bugs matter Vendome et al., ICSE'18 Software licensing can quickly get quite complicated, with over 100 known open source licenses out there, and distributions often including components with a mix of licenses. Unsurprisingly, developers find it hard to determine appropriate licenses for their work, and to interpret … Continue reading To distribute or not to distribute? Why licensing bugs matter
Automated localization for unreproducible builds
Automated localization for unreproducible builds Ren et al., ICSE'18 Reproducible builds are an important component of integrity in the software supply chain. Attacks against package repositories and build environments may compromise binaries and produce packages with backdoors (see this report for a recent prominent example of compromised packages on DockerHub). If the same source files … Continue reading Automated localization for unreproducible builds
Generalized data structure synthesis
Generalized data structure synthesis Loncaric et al., ICSE'18 Many systems have a few key data structures at their heart. Finding correct and efficient implementations for these data structures is not always easy. Today’s paper introduces Cozy (https://cozy.uwplse.org), which can handle this task for you given a high-level specification of the state, queries, and update operations … Continue reading Generalized data structure synthesis
ConflictJS: finding and understanding conflicts between JavaScript libraries
ConflictJS: finding and understanding conflicts between JavaScript libraries Patra et al., ICSE'18 The JavaScript ecosystem is fertile ground for dependency hell. With so many libraries being made available and the potential for global namespace clashes, it’s easy for libraries to break each other. Sometimes in an obvious to spot way (that’s a good day!), and … Continue reading ConflictJS: finding and understanding conflicts between JavaScript libraries
Debugging with intelligence via probabilistic inference
Debugging with intelligence via probabilistic inference Xu et al., ICSE'18 Xu et al. have built a automated debugger that can take a single failing test execution, and with minimal interaction from a human, pinpoint the root cause of the failure. What I find really exciting about it, is that instead of brute force there’s a … Continue reading Debugging with intelligence via probabilistic inference
A sample of brilliance
A sample of brilliance Jon Bentley et al., CACM 1987 (Also available in ) Jon Bentley’s “Programming Pearls” was a well-loved column in CACM (and also available in book form). Today we’re taking at look at his “Sample of Brilliance” column from 1987, featuring guest contributions from none other then Bob Floyd (whose Turing Award … Continue reading A sample of brilliance
