Punctuated Equilibrium in Software Evolution
A. A. Gorshenev (1), Yu. M. Pis'mak (1) ((1) Department of Theoretical, Physics State University of Saint-Petersburg, Saint-Petersburg, Russia)
TL;DR
This paper investigates the dynamics of software evolution through the lens of self-organized criticality, analyzing open source projects and proposing a model that aligns well with observed data.
Contribution
It introduces a novel model of software evolution based on natural selection principles and demonstrates its validity with empirical data from real-world software.
Findings
Scaling laws consistent with self-organized criticality found in software modifications
The proposed model aligns well with empirical data from Mozilla, Free-BSD, and Emacs
Numerical and analytical results support the natural selection-based evolution theory
Abstract
The approach based on paradigm of self-organized criticality proposed for experimental investigation and theoretical modelling of software evolution. The dynamics of modifications studied for three free, open source programs Mozilla, Free-BSD and Emacs using the data from version control systems. Scaling laws typical for the self-organization criticality found. The model of software evolution presenting the natural selection principle is proposed. The results of numerical and analytical investigation of the model are presented. They are in a good agreement with the data collected for the real-world software.
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