After more than 40 years of life, software evolution should be considered as a mature field. However, despiteudsuch a long history, many research questions still remain open, and controversial studies about the validityudof the laws of software evolution are common. During the first part of these 40 years the laws themselvesudevolved to adapt to changes in both the research and the software industry environments. This processudof adaption to new paradigms, standards, and practices stopped about 15 years ago, when the laws wereudrevised for the last time. However, most controversial studies have been raised during this latter period.udBased on a systematic and comprehensive literature review, in this paper we describe how and when theudlaws, and the software evolution field, evolved. We also address the current state of affairs about the validityudof the laws, how they are perceived by the research community, and the developments and challenges thatudare likely to occur in the coming years.
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