JavaScript API Deprecation in the Wild: A First Assessment (SANER 2020)
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The document assesses JavaScript API deprecation practices by analyzing 50 popular projects, revealing that only 3% of files included deprecation mechanisms. It identifies various methods developers use to handle deprecation, with replacement messages being common but overall adoption of these practices being low, particularly for JSDoc annotations. Future research is suggested to improve understanding of developer motivations and to create tools for identifying deprecation contexts.
JavaScript API Deprecation in the Wild: A First Assessment (SANER 2020)
- 1. JavaScript API Deprecation in the Wild: A First Assessment Romulo Nascimento, Aline Brito, Andre Hora, Eduardo Figueiredo IEEE SANER 2020
- 2. Motivation JavaScript is the most popular programming language for the seventh consecutive year 2
- 3. Motivation GitHub also reports JavaScript as a popular language 3
- 4. There are several JavaScript libraries Lodash Axios Angular 4
- 5. There are several JavaScript libraries Lodash Axios Angular 5 Library for static analysis
- 6. There are several JavaScript libraries Lodash Angular 6 HTTP client Axios
- 7. There are several JavaScript libraries Axios Angular 7 Utility library Lodash
- 8. Library services are provided via APIs 8
- 9. Libraries and their APIs evolve over time 9
- 10. API Deprecation Deprecation mechanisms help clients to migrate to new API versions 10
- 11. Example of API Deprecation 11
- 12. Example of API Deprecation The question has 17K views 12
- 13. Example of API Deprecation 13
- 14. Example of API Deprecation A developer recommends two options 14
- 15. Example of API Deprecation JSDoc deprecated annotation 15
- 16. Example of API Deprecation Console warning message 16
- 17. How do developers actually deprecate JavaScript APIs? 17
- 18. Outline 18 1. Dataset 2. Searching for deprecation occurrences 3. Results
- 19. Dataset 19
- 20. Dataset 20 50 popular JavaScript projects Metrics from GitHub repositories
- 22. We downloaded the source code of the 50 projects (latest stable version) 22
- 23. We downloaded the source code of the 50 selected projects (latest stable version) We discarded files that are not part of the core systems 23
- 24. We downloaded the source code of the 50 selected projects (latest stable version) We discarded files that are not part of the core systems We used a regular expression to find deprecation occurrence candidates 24
- 25. We downloaded the source code of the 50 selected projects (latest stable version) We discarded files that are not part of the core systems We used a regular expression to find deprecation occurrence candidates 25 29 projects (58%)
- 26. Results 26
- 27. RQ1: How do Developers Deprecate JavaScript APIs? 27
- 28. How do Developers Deprecate JavaScript APIs? DATASET 1,279 deprecation contexts 29 project (58%) 28
- 29. How do Developers Deprecate JavaScript APIs? DATASET 29 project (58%) 1,279 deprecation contexts 29
- 30. How do Developers Deprecate JavaScript APIs? 1,279 deprecation contexts We selected a random sample of 268 cases (20%) for manual analysis 30
- 31. How do Developers Deprecate JavaScript APIs? Deprecation utility Code comment JSDoc /* */ Console Deprecation lists 31
- 32. How do Developers Deprecate JavaScript APIs? Deprecation utility Any set of code functions to aid code deprecation 88 occurrences (33%) 32
- 33. How do Developers Deprecate JavaScript APIs? Code comment /* */ Use of code comments excluding occurrences of JSDoc 27 occurrences (10%) 33
- 34. How do Developers Deprecate JavaScript APIs? JSDoc Use of the JSDoc annotation 22 occurrences (8%) 34
- 35. How do Developers Deprecate JavaScript APIs? Deprecation lists List of deprecated elements 18 occurrences (7%) 35
- 36. How do Developers Deprecate JavaScript APIs? Console Use of the JavaScript engine native console API 11 occurrences (4%) 36
- 37. RQ2: Are JavaScript APIs Deprecated with Replacement Messages? 37
- 38. Are JavaScript APIs deprecated with replacement messages? 67% Replacement messages to support developers to migrate to new versions 38
- 39. Example: Replacement Message 39 handleExceptions(...args){ ... console.warn('Deprecated: .handleExceptions() will be removed in winston@4. Use .exceptions.handle()') ... }
- 40. Example: Replacement Message 40 handleExceptions(...args){ ... console.warn('Deprecated: .handleExceptions() will be removed in winston@4. Use .exceptions.handle()') ... }
- 41. Are JavaScript APIs deprecated with replacement messages? Deprecation utility 75 occurrences of replacement messages 41
- 42. Code comment /* */ 4 occurrences of replacement messages Are JavaScript APIs deprecated with replacement messages? 42
- 43. Are JavaScript APIs deprecated with replacement messages? JSDoc 10 occurrences of replacement messages 43
- 45. Conclusion and Discussion Deprecation adoption is not frequent in JavaScript APIs Only 3% of all analyzed files contain occurrences of deprecation mechanisms 45
- 46. Conclusion and Discussion Only 22 occurrences (8%) of JSDoc JSDoc is not popular among deprecation mechanisms 46
- 47. Future Studies Survey with API developers about motivation and impressions behind the usage of JavaScript deprecation practices 47
- 48. Future Studies Tool Identification of deprecation contexts Alert about missing replacement messages 48
- 49. JavaScript API Deprecation in the Wild: A First Assessment Romulo Nascimento, Aline Brito, Andre Hora, Eduardo Figueiredo IEEE SANER 2020