Mozilla adopts machine learning to automatically find bugs

Posted on Wednesday, February 13 2019 @ 11:46 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
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ARS Technica reports Mozilla will adopt Clever-Commit, a machine-learning based coding assistant developed in cooperation with game publisher Ubisoft. The goal here is to automatically detect bugs before the product ships. Clever-Commit works by comparing new code to old code that the system knows is buggy.
Clever-Commit analyzes code changes as developers commit them to the Firefox codebase. It compares them to all the code it has seen before to see if they look similar to code that the system knows to be buggy. If the assistant thinks that a commit looks suspicious, it warns the developer. Presuming its analysis is correct, it means that the bug can be fixed before it gets committed into the source repository. Clever-Commit can even suggest fixes for the bugs that it finds. Initially, Mozilla plans to use Clever-Commit during code reviews, and in time this will expand to other phases of development, too. It works with all three of the languages that Mozilla uses for Firefox: C++, JavaScript, and Rust.


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Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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