Baishakhi Ray, Daryl Posnett, Premkumar Devanbu, Vladimir Filkov detailed study of programming languages and code quality. They tried to answer the question: What is the effect of programming languages on software quality?
In this study, we gather a very large data set from GitHub (728 projects, 63 million SLOC, 29,000 authors, 1.5 million commits, in 17 languages).
The reasonably large sample size allowed authors to use a mixed-methods approach, combining multiple regression modeling with visualization and text analytics.
Functional languages have a smaller relationship to defects than other language classes whereas procedural languages are greater than or similar to the average.
One should take care not to overestimate the impact of language on defects. While the observed relationships are statistically significant, the effects are quite small. Analysis of deviance reveals that language accounts for less than 1% of the total explained deviance.
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