Understanding and supporting source code evolution

提高程序员修改源代码的能力是我研究项目的长期目标。由于许多不同的原因，需要更改源代码。例如，已经在使用的程序（可能在许多年前首次开发）可能需要进行更改，以适应新的业务需求或不断变化的执行环境。甚至创建新程序也可以看作是对代码库进行更改的迭代过程，从程序的一个非常简单的版本开始。此外，新程序和现有程序在发现缺陷时通常都需要纠正缺陷（即“bug”）。一些源代码更改可能很小，只对局部产生影响；其他变化可能影响深远，涉及重大的结构调整。尽管在这个领域已经有了工作，但是对于程序员来说，执行变更任务仍然很困难。

Improving the ability of programmers to make changes to source code is the long-term goal of my research program. Source code needs to be changed for a number of different reasons. For example, a program already in use (possibly first developed many year earlier) may need to be changed to accommodate new business requirements or a changing execution environment. Even creating new programs can be seen as an iterative process of making changes to the code base, beginning with a very simple version of the program. In addition, both new and existing programs often need to have flaws (i.e., "bugs") corrected as they are discovered. Some source code changes may be small with only local effect; other changes may be far reaching involving significant structural modifications. Despite existing work in this area, performing change tasks remains difficult for programmers.