research-article

Do developers benefit from generic types?: an empirical comparison of generic and raw types in java

Authors:

Stefan HanenbergAuthors Info & Claims

OOPSLA '13: Proceedings of the 2013 ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Object oriented programming systems languages & applications

Pages 457 - 474

https://doi.org/10.1145/2509136.2509528

Published: 29 October 2013 Publication History

Abstract

Type systems that permit developers to express themselves more precisely are one of the primary topics in programming language research, as well as in industrial software development. While it seems plausible that an expressive static type system increases developer productivity, there is little empirical evidence for or against this hypothesis. Generic types in Java are an example: as an extension of Java's original type system, some claim that Java 1.5 improves the type system's "expressiveness." Even if this claim is true, there exists little empirical evidence that claimed expressiveness leads to a measurable increase in developer productivity. This paper introduces an experiment where generic types (in comparison to raw types) have been evaluated in three different directions: (1) the documentation impact on undocumented APIs, (2) the time required for fixing type errors, and (3) the extensibility of a generic type hierarchy. The results of the experiment suggest that generic types improve documentation and reduce extensibility -- without revealing a difference in the time required for fixing type errors.

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Cited By

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https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2019.2910516
Hanenberg SMehlhorn N(2021)Two N-of-1 self-trials on readability differences between anonymous inner classes (AICs) and lambda expressions (LEs) on Java code snippetsEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-021-10077-327:2Online publication date: 20-Dec-2021
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Index Terms

Do developers benefit from generic types?: an empirical comparison of generic and raw types in java
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language features

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cover image ACM Conferences

OOPSLA '13: Proceedings of the 2013 ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Object oriented programming systems languages & applications

October 2013

904 pages

ISBN:9781450323741

DOI:10.1145/2509136

Co-chair:
Antony Hosking
Purdue University, USA
,
General Chair:
Patrick Eugster
Purdue University, USA
,
Program Chair:
Cristina V. Lopes
University of California, Irvine, USA

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 48, Issue 10
OOPSLA '13
October 2013
867 pages
ISSN:0362-1340
EISSN:1558-1160
DOI:10.1145/2544173
Editor:
Mark W. Bailey
Hamilton College, Clinton, NY
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2013 ACM.

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Published: 29 October 2013

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SPLASH '13: Conference on Systems, Programming, and Applications: Software for Humanity

October 29 - 31, 2013

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Cited By

Yu ZBai CSeinturier LMonperrus M(2021)Characterizing the Usage, Evolution and Impact of Java Annotations in PracticeIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2019.291051647:5(969-986)Online publication date: 1-May-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2019.2910516
Hanenberg SMehlhorn N(2021)Two N-of-1 self-trials on readability differences between anonymous inner classes (AICs) and lambda expressions (LEs) on Java code snippetsEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-021-10077-327:2Online publication date: 20-Dec-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-021-10077-3
Uesbeck PPeterson CSharif BStefik ADevanbu PCohen MZimmermann T(2020)A randomized controlled trial on the effects of embedded computer language switchingProceedings of the 28th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering10.1145/3368089.3409701(410-420)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3368089.3409701
Chen LWu DMa WZhou YXu BLeung H(2020)How C++ Templates Are Used for Generic ProgrammingACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/335657929:1(1-49)Online publication date: 30-Jan-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3356579
Salvaneschi GProksch SAmann SNadi SMezini M(2017)On the Positive Effect of Reactive Programming on Software ComprehensionIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2017.265552443:12(1125-1143)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2017.2655524
Hanenberg S(2017)Empirical, Human-Centered Evaluation of Programming and Programming Language Constructs: Controlled ExperimentsGrand Timely Topics in Software Engineering10.1007/978-3-319-60074-1_3(45-72)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2017
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60074-1_3
Mezzetti GMøller AStrocco F(2016)Type unsoundness in practice: an empirical study of DartACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3093334.298922752:2(13-24)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3093334.2989227
Mezzetti GMøller AStrocco FIerusalimschy R(2016)Type unsoundness in practice: an empirical study of DartProceedings of the 12th Symposium on Dynamic Languages10.1145/2989225.2989227(13-24)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2989225.2989227
Uesbeck PStefik AHanenberg SPedersen JDaleiden PDillon LVisser WWilliams L(2016)An empirical study on the impact of C++ lambdas and programmer experienceProceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/2884781.2884849(760-771)Online publication date: 14-May-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2884781.2884849
Okon SHanenberg S(2016)Can we enforce a benefit for dynamically typed languages in comparison to statically typed ones? A controlled experiment2016 IEEE 24th International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC)10.1109/ICPC.2016.7503719(1-10)Online publication date: May-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICPC.2016.7503719
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