Subjectivity in Clone Judgment: Can We Ever Agree?

An objective definition of what a code clone is currently eludes the field. A small study was performed at an international workshop to elicit judgments and discussions from world experts regarding what characteristics define a code clone. Less than half of the clone candidates judged had 80% agreement amongst the judges. Judges appeared to differ primarily in their criteria for judgment rather than their interpretation of the clone candidates. In subsequent open discussion the judges provided several reasons for their judgments. The study casts additional doubt on the reliability of experimental results in the field when the full criterion for clone judgment is not spelled out. Keywords. code clone, study, inter-rater agreement, ill-defined problem

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: DAGSTUHL
• Authors: Cory Kapser, Paul Anderson, Michael W. Godfrey, Rainer Koschke, Matthias Rieger, Filip Van Rysselberghe, Peter Weißgerber
• Keywords: Clone Candidates, Clone Judgment, Code Clone, DAGSTUHL 2006, DAGSTUHL 2007