Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37945685›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2023

Visualizing software refactoring using radar charts.

Abdel-Rahman Al-Ghuwairi, Dimah Al-Fraihat, Yousef Sharrab, Huda Alrashidi, Nouf Almujally, Ahmed Kittaneh, Ahmed Ali

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Abdel-Rahman Al-GhuwairiDepartment of Software Engineering, Faculty of Prince Al-Hussien Bin Abdallah II for Information Technology, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan.
Dimah Al-FraihatDepartment of Software Engineering, Faculty of Information Technology, Isra University, Amman, Jordan. d.fraihat@iu.edu.jo.
Yousef SharrabDepartment of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, Faculty of Information Technology, Isra University, Amman, Jordan.
Huda AlrashidiFaculty of Information Technology and Computing, Arab Open University, Ardiya, Kuwait.
Nouf AlmujallyDepartment of Information Systems, College of Computer and Information Sciences, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh, 11671, Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed KittanehDepartment of Software Engineering, Faculty of Prince Al-Hussien Bin Abdallah II for Information Technology, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan.
Ahmed AliDepartment of Software Engineering, Faculty of Prince Al-Hussien Bin Abdallah II for Information Technology, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan.

Funding

Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Project number (PNURSP2023R410)
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Refactoring tools have advanced greatly and are being used in many large projects. As a result, a great deal of information is now available about past refactoring and its effects on the source code. However, when multiple refactoring is performed at once, it becomes more difficult to analyze their impact. Refactoring visualization can help developers create more maintainable code that is easier to understand and modify over time. Although there is an increasing interest in visualizing code changes in software engineering research, there has been relatively little research on visualizing the process of refactoring. In this paper, we propose a Radar Chart Refactoring Visualization (RcRV) approach to visualize software refactoring of source code across multiple software releases. Radar charts are a form of 2D visualization that can show multiple variables on a single chart. The RcRv receives input from developers or through refactoring identification tools, such as Ref-Finder, to generate charts. The generated charts can show the changes made during the refactoring process, highlighting areas of the trend of refactoring over evolution for multiple refactoring, multiple methods, and multiple classes. The evaluation study conducted to assess the usefulness of the RcRV tool has shown that the proposed tool is useful to developers, appealing, and easy to use. The proposed method of visualization can be beneficial for developers and maintainers to detect design violations and potential bugs in the code, thus saving time and effort during the development and maintenance process. Therefore, this research presents a significant contribution to the software engineering field by providing developers with an efficient tool to enhance code quality and maintainability.

Identifiers

PMID37945685
PMCPMC10636095

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.