Discussion on Code Clone Modification Tool for Development Process with Version Control System

A code clone is a code fragment that has identical or similar code fragments to it in the source code. If developers modify a code clone, they have to determine whether or not to modify the corresponding code clones in source code. To keep the consistency of code clones, developers run a clone detection tool when they modify one of the code clones. This prevents the developers from concentrating on coding. A considerable solution is integrating a code clone detection tool into IDE, and detecting code clones when a developer changes source code. However, if a number of clone changes are notified when a developer complete a modification, this also prevents the developers from concentrating on coding. A commit of a version control system is a considerable timing of notifying clone changes. Because it is not frequent but also means the completion of a modification, commit-level notification does not interrupt implementation. In this study, we describe existing works related with the integration of version control system and code clone detection tool, and then discuss requirements of a clone modification tool for development process with version control. Finally, we introduce a tool satisfying the requirements under development.