Analyzing Iterative Improvements to Structural Code Diffs
M. Mejer (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
Quentin Le Dilavrec – Mentor (TU Delft - Software Engineering)
C.E. Brandt – Mentor (TU Delft - Software Engineering)
Jesper Cockx – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Programming Languages)
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Abstract
Version control systems rely on code differencing algorithms to track changes and support key development tasks such as merging, code search, and code reviews. Traditional differencing techniques operate on plain-text representations of source code, which sometimes fail to convey the original intent behind code modifications. To address this, modern algorithms operate on abstract syntax trees (ASTs), enabling more accurate and structurally meaningful edit scripts. However, computing differences between ASTs poses new challenges, especially in balancing edit script quality with runtime performance.
This paper investigates the evolution of AST differencing algorithms by analyzing a sequence of key refinements built on top of Xy - a foundational algorithm originally designed for XML. We evaluate three influential enhancements: GumTree’s optimal recovery strategy, the simplified recovery heuristic introduced in GumTree Simple, and HyperDiff’s use of a compressed AST representation. We evaluate each refinement independently using a shared benchmarking framework and a dataset of real-world Java code changes. Our results show how each refinement incrementally improves scalability, runtime stability, and script quality. These findings offer a deeper understanding of the design trade-offs in AST differencing and provide guidance for developing efficient and interpretable structural diff tools at scale.