Analysing Lambda Usage in the C++ Open Source Community

Sammanfattning: Object-oriented languages have made a shift towards incorporating functional concepts such as lambdas. Lambdas are anonymous functions that can be used within the scope of other functions. In C++ lambdas are considered difficult to use for inexperienced developers. This implies that there may be problems with lambdas in C++. However, studies about lambdas in C++ repositories are scarce, compared to other object-oriented languages such as Java. This study aims to address a knowledge gap regarding how lambdas are used by developers in C++ repositories. Furthermore, examine how developer experience and software engineering practices, such as unit testing and in-code documentation, correlates with the inclusion of lambdas. To achieve this we create a set of tools that statically analyse repositories to gather results. This study gained insight into the number of repositories utilising lambdas, their usage areas, and documentation but also how these findings compare to similar studies’ results in Java. Further, it is shown that unit testing and developer experience correlates with the usage of lambdas.