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About this paper
Haoyu Gao, Christoph Treude, Mansooreh Zahedi
Researchers investigated how installation instructions in README files are updated in rapidly evolving software ecosystems, identifying common modification patterns and their triggers. The study proposes a structured README template, which demonstrably improved documentation quality across multiple dimensions in user evaluations and saw adoption in real-world GitHub projects.
Key insights
- Updates related to pre-installation instructions (e.g., dependency setup) and document presentation (e.g., structural modifications) constitute the most frequent changes in README files.
- Changes in the codebase (e.g., new software versions, functionality modifications) are the primary drivers for documentation updates, accounting for 392 out of 614 identified triggers.
- A standardized template can significantly improve perceived documentation quality, particularly regarding structure, understandability, and conciseness, as evidenced by user feedback.
Summary by alphaXiv.
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