FSE/CACM Rebuttal$^2$: Correcting A Large-Scale Study of Programming Languages and Code Quality in GitHub

TL;DR

This paper provides a detailed rebuttal to a critique of a large-scale study on programming languages and code quality in GitHub, reaffirming the original findings and addressing methodological concerns.

Contribution

It offers a rigorous defense and clarification of the original study's methodology and conclusions regarding programming languages and code quality.

Findings

Reaffirms the original study's results on language impact

Addresses and clarifies methodological criticisms

Strengthens confidence in the original conclusions

Abstract

Ray, Devanbu and Filkov issued a rebuttal of our TOPLAS paper "On the Impact of Programming Languages on Code Quality: A Reproduction Study". Our paper reproduced "A Large-Scale Study of Programming Languages and Code Quality in GitHub", which appeared at FSE 2014 and was subsequently republished as a CACM research highlight in 2017. This article is a rebuttal to that rebuttal.