US 11,900,080 B2Granted

Software development autocreated suggestion provenance

AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC

InventorsMark Alistair Wilson-Thomas, German David Obando Chacon

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Abstract

Some embodiments determine automatically which synthesized or otherwise autocreated suggestions for source code editing are presented to developers. Some filter out autocreated coding suggestions that have not been sufficiently endorsed by a developer's team, based on a suggestion trust score. The trust score may reflect the suggestion's adoption in a particular repository or codebase, or affiliation of the suggestion with a library release, or an actual or implied review of the suggestion by team members. Some suggestion filters enhance existing development team code review practices, by offering endorsed suggestions in autocompletion or analysis interfaces of tools and by withholding non-endorsed suggestions from display. Context illustrating the autocreated suggestion's provenance may be displayed to help developers decide whether to adopt the suggestion themselves while editing code. Some tools that are enhanced with suggestion filtering functionality avoid developer configuration burdens while increasing consistent adoption of endorsed suggestions inside a codebase.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A software development system having a user interface for interaction with a first software developer editing or reviewing source code, the software development system comprising:

a digital memory;
and
a processor in operable communication with the digital memory, the processor configured to perform suggestion filtering steps which include automatically (a) obtaining provenance metadata of an automatically created software development suggestion (ACSDS), the provenance metadata of the ACSDS indicating implicit or explicit software developer endorsement of the ACSDS by at least one other software developer than the first software developer, (b) assigning a provenance-derived trust score to the ACSDS based at least in part on the provenance metadata of the ACSDS but not based on whether the ACSDS matches an application programming interface antipattern and not based on whether the ACSDS matches a source code pattern, (c) comparing the provenance-derived trust score to a criterion for supplying the ACSDS to a suggestion presentation interface of a software development tool or to a criterion for withholding the ACSDS from the suggestion presentation interface of the software development tool, and (d) supplying the ACSDS to the suggestion presentation interface of the software development tool or withholding the ACSDS from the suggestion presentation interface of the software development tool and from any other presentation by the software development system to any other software developer, in response to a result of the comparing;
whereby the software development system presents the ACSDS to the first software developer more often or less often depending on whether other software developers have or have not at least implicitly endorsed the ACSDS;
and
whereby the software development system adopts the implicitly endorsed ACSDS when the first software developer applies the implicitly endorsed ACSDS to modify the source code using the software development tool.

3 more elements

A software development tool method performed by a computing system interacting with a first software developer to edit or review source code, comprising:

obtaining provenance metadata of an automatically created software development suggestion (ACSDS);
ascertaining at least one of the following provenance values at least in part by using the provenance metadata of the ACSDS:
a codebase utilization level which indicates an extent to which the ACSDS has been utilized within a codebase by at least one software developer other than the first software developer;
a codebase utilizer identity which identifies at least one software developer other than the first software developer who submitted one or more suggestion-based changes to a codebase, each suggestion-based change of the one or more suggestion-based changes including a software implementation of the ACSDS;
a developer review level which indicates an extent to which the ACSDS has been reviewed by at least one software developer other than the first software developer;
a suggestion saver identity which identifies at least one software developer other than the first software developer who chose to save the ACSDS instead of discarding the ACSDS;
a library affiliation which indicates that the ACSDS is affiliated with a library by an authorized author of the library or an authorized distributor of the library other than the first software developer;
or
a repository affiliation which indicates that the ACSDS is affiliated with a code repository by an authorized user of the code repository other than the first software developer;
computing a provenance-derived trust score for the ACSDS based at least in part on a result of the ascertaining but not based on whether the ACSDS matches an application programming interface antipattern and not based on whether the ACSDS matches a source code pattern;
assigning the provenance-derived trust score to the ACSDS;
employing the provenance-derived trust score within a software development tool;
displaying the ACSDS in a screen view of the software development tool;
and
adopting the ACSDS when the first software developer applies the ACSDS to modify the source code using the software development tool.

12 more elements

A computer-readable storage medium configured with data and instructions which upon execution by a processor cause a computing system to perform a suggestion filtering method interacting with a first software developer to edit or review source code, the suggestion filtering method comprising:

obtaining provenance metadata of an automatically created software development suggestion (ACSDS), the provenance metadata of the ACSDS including a codebase utilization level which indicates an extent to which the ACSDS has been utilized within at least one codebase by at least one software developer other than the first software developer;
assigning a provenance-derived trust score to the ACSDS based at least in part on the provenance metadata of the ACSDS but not based on whether the ACSDS matches an application programming interface antipattern and not based on whether the ACSDS matches a source code pattern;
comparing the provenance-derived trust score to a criterion for supplying the ACSDS to a suggestion presentation interface of a software development tool or to a criterion for withholding the ACSDS from the suggestion presentation interface of the software development tool;
supplying the ACSDS to the suggestion presentation interface of the software development tool or withholding the ACSDS from the suggestion presentation interface of the software development tool and from any other presentation to any other software developer, in response to a result of the comparing;
presenting the ACSDS within the software development tool;
and
adopting the ACSDS when the first software developer applies the ACSDS to modify the source code using the software development tool.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/924,316Filed 9 Jul 2020
Published: US 2022/0012019 A113 Jan 2022
Granted: 13 Feb 2024
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

G06F 8/33
Creation or generation of source code: intelligent editors
H04L 63/12
Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security: applying verification of the received information
G06F 8/36
Creation or generation of source code: software reuse
G06F 8/70
Arrangements for software engineering: software maintenance or management