Identifying a software developer based on debugging information

• US 8,589,880 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2009
• Issued: 11/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Jones, Angela Richards, Patel, Kaushik
• Primary Examiner(s): Bullock, Jr., Lewis A
• Assistant Examiner(s): APONTE, FRANCISCO JAVIER
• Application Number:
  US12/372,544
• Publication Number:
  US 20100211932A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,736 Days
• Field of Search: 717101-178, 719/313, 719/320, 714/26, 714/49, 714/38.14, 714/38.1, 714/E11.21, 714/E11.207, 714/E11.22, 714/E11.026
• US Class Current: 717/124
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3624 by performing operations on the source code, e.g. via a compiler
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

A solution for identifying a software developer based on debugging information includes an identification module configured to identify a developer of a line of source code, a determination module configured to determine a developer contact tag for the developer, an encoding module configured to encode the developer contact tag, a tagging module configured to automatically tag the line of source code with the developer contact tag associated with the developer. The solution also includes a debug module configured to provide debug information, a decoding module configured to decrypt the developer contact tag, and a presentation module configured to present the debug stack trace in human readable form.

Claims

1. A method for identifying a software developer based on debugging information, the method comprising:

automatically identifying a developer of a line of source code stored by the developer in a source code repository;

determining a developer contact tag for the developer;

automatically tagging the line of source code with the developer contact tag associated with the developer;

compiling the line of source code into a set of executable code, the set of executable code comprising the developer contact tag in a format compatible for presentation with debug information produced from the executable code, the debug information comprising;

a line number of the line of source code that was last executed;

a function that includes the line of source code last executed; and

a function that will be called next;

generating a stack trace in response to a failure when compiling the source code, the stack trace comprising;

an identifier of the function that includes the line of source code;

a source code line number; and

the developer contact tag; and

determining the developer associated with the line of source code from the debug information by way of the developer contact tag.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the line of source code is a modified line of source code by comparing a current set of source code to a previous version of the source code.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the developer contact tag for the developer comprises creating the developer contact tag such that the developer contact tag serves as a unique index into a repository of developers, the repository of developers comprising an entry for the developer, the entry comprising at least a developer communication address and one or more of a developer name and a developer role.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising retrieving the developer communication address based on the developer contact tag and retrieving one or more of the developer name and the developer role from the entry for the developer from the repository of developers.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the developer contact tag comprises one or more data fields formatted in plain text human-readable format and further comprising encrypting the developer contact tag such that the debug information includes the encoded developer contact tag.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising replacing the encoded developer contact tag in the debug information with a developer communication address and one or more of a developer name and a developer role.

7. An apparatus for identifying a software developer based on debugging information, the apparatus comprising:

a display device;

an identification module configured to identify one or more lines of source code as modified lines of source code by comparing a current set of source code provided by a developer to a previous version of the source code and configured to identify the developer of the modified lines of source code, the module comprising;

a determination module configured to determine a developer contact tag for the developer;

an encoding module configured to encode the developer contact tag;

a tagging module configured to automatically tag the modified lines of source code with the encoded developer contact tag associated with the developer, the modified lines of source code tagged such that the developer contact tag is available in a debugging information of executable code generated from the modified lines of source code, the debugging information comprising a source code line number that was last executed and/or a function that includes the line of source code that was last executed, and/or a function that will be called next;

a debug module configured to provide the debugging information for the executable code, and generate a stack trace comprising;

a name of the function;

a location where the function was called;

the line number of the source code where the failure occurred; and

the developer contact tag; and

determine the developer associated with the line of source code from the debug information by way of the developer contact tag, the module comprising,

a decoding module configured to decode the developer contact tag; and

a presentation module configured to present the debugging information on the display device, wherein the debugging information comprises text information in human readable form.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising, generating the debug information in response to a software failure and searching the debug information for the developer contact tag associated with the modified lines of source code.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein determining the developer contact tag for the developer comprises creating a unique identifier for the developer who last modified the modified lines of source code, the developer contact tag indexing a repository of developers, the repository of developers comprising an entry for the developer, the entry comprising at least a developer communication address and one or more of a developer name and a developer role.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising retrieving the developer communication address and one or more of the developer name and the developer role from the entry for the developer from the repository of developers.

11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the decoding module replaces the encoded developer contact tag in the debug information with a developer communication address and one or more of a developer name and a developer role.

12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the developer contact tag comprises one or more data fields formatted in plain text human-readable format.

13. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising presenting the debug information comprising the modified lines of source code and the developer communication address and one or more of the developer name and the developer role to a user in a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

14. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the determination module is further configured to determine a developer contact tag for a set of developers and the developer that provided the current set of source code is a member of that set of developers, each member of the set of developers is competent to provide context for the source code.

15. A system for identifying a software developer based on debugging information, the system comprising:

a processor;

a memory in communication with the processor, the memory comprising;

an identification module configured to identify a developer of a line of source code, the module comprising;

a determination module configured to determine a developer contact tag for the developer;

an encoding module configured to encode the developer contact tag;

a tagging module configured to automatically tag the line of source code with the developer contact tag associated with the developer;

a debug module configured to provide debugging information of executable code, the debug information comprising a source code line number that was last executed and/or the function that includes the line of source code that was last executed, and/or a function that will be called next; and

in response to a software failure, generating a stack trace comprising;

the name of the function called;

the location where the function was called;

the line number of the source code where the failure occurred; and

the developer contact tag; and

determine the developer associated with the line of source code from the debug information by way of the developer contact tag, the module comprising;

a decoding module configured to decode the developer contact tag associated with the line of source code; and

a presentation module configured to present the debugging information, comprising text in human readable form.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising, obtaining the debug information and searching the debug information for the developer contact tag associated with the line of source code.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the encoded developer contact tag comprises a developer communication address and one or more of a developer name and a developer role.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising replacing the encoded developer contact tag in the debug information with the developer communication address and one or more of the developer name and the developer role.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising presenting the debug information comprising the line of source code and the developer communication address and one or more of the developer name and the developer role to a user in a Graphical User Interface (GUI).