Presented at ICSE 2011 in the New Ideas and Emerging Results track. In the associated paper we show that in a real world ecosystem ripple effects are frequent, long lived, and can have a very broad impact. More at: http://scg.unibe.ch/scgbib?query=lungu+ripple

1. A Study of Ripple Effects
In Software Ecosystems
Romain Robbes Mircea Lungu
University of Chile University of Bern
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

2. Ripple Effects
Architecture of Moose 3.2
made with Softwarenaut
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

3. Ripple Effects
Architecture of Moose 3.2
made with Softwarenaut
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

4. Ripple Effects
Architecture of Moose 3.2
made with Softwarenaut
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

5. Ecosystem Ripple
Effects
Moose in the SCG Eco-
system, made with SPO
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

6. Ecosystem Ripple
Effects
?
?
? ? ? ? ?
?
?
Moose in the SCG Eco-
Evidence?
system, made with SPO
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

7. Evidence from
mailing lists
• In the paper
• Seaside
• Moose
• ...
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

8. Evidence from
mailing lists
Seaside User:
• In the paper
I noticed that the dialog classes
listed below are not in [new version]. I
am wondering if these classes have
• Seaside been dropped, have not been
ported to [new version] or does their
func- tionality exists elsewhere?
• Moose
• ...
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

9. Evidence from
mailing lists
Seaside User:
• In the paper
I noticed that the dialog classes
listed below are not in [new version]. I
am wondering if these classes have
• Seaside been dropped, have not been
ported to [new version] or does their
func- tionality exists elsewhere?
• Moose
Seaside Developer:
• ... They have been dropped. A mail
went out to this list if anybody still
used them and nobody replied. [...]
Personally I donʼt know of any
application that uses these dialogs.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

10. Evidence from
mailing lists
• In the paper
Moose User:
• Seaside [...] where is MOLabelShape, why
was it deleted?? I use it and now is
gone!!! I even had a specialization
• Moose of it [...]
• ...
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

11. Evidence from
an ecosystem history
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

12. Evidence from
an ecosystem history
• SqueakSource - More than
• 7 years of history
• 2000 projects
• 3000 developers
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

13. Searching for Ripples
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

14. Searching for Ripples
• Source: additions, deletions, modifications, deprecations
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

15. Searching for Ripples
• Source: additions, deletions, modifications, deprecations
• Algorithm for deprecation-based-ripples
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

16. Searching for Ripples
• Source: additions, deletions, modifications, deprecations
• Algorithm for deprecation-based-ripples
1. Find all the entities in the ecosystem that were
deprecated
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

17. Searching for Ripples
• Source: additions, deletions, modifications, deprecations
• Algorithm for deprecation-based-ripples
1. Find all the entities in the ecosystem that were
deprecated
2. For each look at all the events that involve that entity
and/or its suggested replacement
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

18. Searching for Ripples
• Source: additions, deletions, modifications, deprecations
• Algorithm for deprecation-based-ripples
1. Find all the entities in the ecosystem that were
deprecated
2. For each look at all the events that involve that entity
and/or its suggested replacement
3. Replacements that happened after the deprecation as
consequences of a ripple
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

19. Top 5 Ripples from The
Case Study
Systematic # of Affected # of Affected
Origin System Deprecated Method
Replacement Systems Developers
System-Support Author initials Author fullName 120 110
Seaside WACanvas bold: WACanvas strong: 61 59
Seaside WASession (...) states 43 47
registerForBackgracking:
Famix-Core FAMIXNamedEntity FAMIXNamedEntity 33 11
packagedIn parentPackage
Kernel ClassDescription metaclass ClassDescription 31 34
theMetaClass
System-Support Utilities authorInitials Author initials 37 45
Kernel Object isKindOf:orOf: 12 24
Collections-Text Text isoToSqueak 18 22
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

20. A Ripple Example
new
ripple
old
add revert
remove
... other
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

21. A Ripple Example
new
ripple
old
add revert
remove
... other
packagedIn
renamed to
parentPackage
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

22. A Ripple Example
new original
old
ripple
add
remove revert
... other
update, revert,
update again
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

23. A Ripple Example
ripples
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

24. A Ripple Example
inconsistent state
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

25. Conclusions
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

26. Conclusions
• Evidence that ecosystem ripple effects can
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

27. Conclusions
• Evidence that ecosystem ripple effects can
• Have a broad impact
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

28. Conclusions
• Evidence that ecosystem ripple effects can
• Have a broad impact
• Have a long life
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

29. Conclusions
• Evidence that ecosystem ripple effects can
• Have a broad impact
• Have a long life
• Developers don’t know their clients
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

30. Conclusions
• Evidence that ecosystem ripple effects can
• Have a broad impact
• Have a long life
• Developers don’t know their clients
• Angry impactees
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

31. Conclusions
• Evidence that ecosystem ripple effects can
• Have a broad impact
• Have a long life
• Developers don’t know their clients
• Angry impactees
• Defensive deprecation
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

32. Ripple Effects of the
Article
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

33. Ripple Effects of the
Article
• Extended Version
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

34. Ripple Effects of the
Article
• Extended Version
• Tool Support
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

35. Ripple Effects of the
Article
• Extended Version
• Tool Support
• Study replication in different ecosystems
Tuesday, June 7, 2011