Mapping API elements for code migration with vector representations

Abstract

Problem. Code migration between languages is challenging partly because different languages require developers to use different software libraries and frameworks. For example, in Java, Java Development Kit library (JDK) is a popular toolkit while .NET is the main framework used in C# software development. Code migration requires not only the mappings between the language constructs (e.g., statements, expressions) but also the mappings among the APIs of the libraries/frameworks used in two languages. For example, in Java, to write to a file, one can use FileWriter.write of FileWriter, and in C#, one can achieve the same function with StreamWriter.Write of StreamWriter. Such mapping is called API mapping.