Analyzing The Co-Change Relationship Between GitHub README and Source Code

Nukulkit Pongbhop (1751211)

GitHub open source software project using a README.md file to show important information such as usage examples, installation associated to their software project. Related works shows that developers often struggle to update documentation. Moreover, Open source survey also reported that software documentation is highly valued but frequently overlooked and developers complained that most documentation either incomplete or outdated. Our goal is to understand the relation of README file and source code update. We investigate through six programming languages which are "C++", "Java", "JavaScript", "PHP", "Python", "Ruby" history updates. The results show that README file most common contents changes by source code along six programming languages are 'usage', option', and 'API'. In additions, we also found that README file content changes are affected by adding new feature into source code. However, the results also report that developers still inconstant for updating README file when they update their projects. This thesis contribute for existing and new comer developers to understand the co-change relation of README file with source code changes and also help them in term of documentation update decision making when they update their projects. Understanding to co-change relationship between GitHub README file and source code will help developers to write and update the documentation.

GitHub open source software project using a README.md file to show important information such as usage examples, installation associated to their software project. Related works shows that developers often struggle to update documentation. Moreover, Open source survey also reported that software documentation is highly valued but frequently overlooked and developers complained that most documentation either incomplete or outdated. Our goal is to understand the relation of README file and source code update. We investigate through six programming languages which are "C++", "Java", "JavaScript", "PHP", "Python", "Ruby" history updates. The results show that README file most common contents changes by source code along six programming languages are 'usage', option', and 'API'. In additions, we also found that README file content changes are affected by adding new feature into source code. However, the results also report that developers still inconstant for updating README file when they update their projects. This thesis contribute for existing and new comer developers to understand the co-change relation of README file with source code changes and also help them in term of documentation update decision making when they update their projects. Understanding to co-change relationship between GitHub README file and source code will help developers to write and update the documentation.