Investigating Developer Sentiments in Software Components: An Exploratory Case Study of Gentoo

Background: Developers, who are the main driving force behind software development, have central work in handling software components such as modules, libraries, and frameworks, which are the backbone of a project's architecture. Managing these components well ensures the smooth implementation of new features, maintains system integrity, and addresses dependencies efficiently. This clearly needs effective team collaboration as well as task management that, in the end, may significantly boost productivity. Additionally, as human beings, emotional involvement during development may naturally deeply influence developers' interaction and productivity. The emotions expressed in negative and positive sentiments may be triggered by different causes, including successfully overcoming obstacles, receiving positive feedback, facing challenges, or demanding tight deadlines. Objective: In this study, we investigated the three aspects (e.g., developers, software components, and sentiments), specifically focusing on how developers' sentiments affect the components they work on or vice versa. Methods: We conducted a structured analysis of Gentoo's means of communication, the mailing list of technical discussions, and the developers' activity (e.g., commits) during the software development over 23 years. Results: We characterized the components that were affected by sentiments and found that there are differences in the developers' activity in the affected components. Conclusion: This study offers implications mainly for investigating the sentiments expressed on the granular level of components and further scrutinizing the components and developers' activity. In addition, our study offers a structured approach that applies to any software project where written communication and development logs are available and several hypotheses that may direct to future works.