PEoPL: Projectional Editing of Product Lines

Behringer, Benjamin; Palz, Jochen; Berger, Thorsten

doi:10.1109/icse.2017.58

Cited by 25 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…First, considering that full feature modularity is almost impossible to achieve, and also does not appear to be necessary according to our study, we suggest considering lightweight modularity techniques. An interesting technique could be module projections [61][62][63], where feature code is physically scattered, but developers can easily obtain projections of modules in their IDE. Second, feature scattering should already be considered when designing the system architecture, accounting for some extent of scattering and possibly a limited number of highly scattered outliers.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study of Feature Scattering in the Linux Kernel

Passos¹,

Queiroz²,

Mukelabai³

et al. 2021

IIEEE Trans. Software Eng.

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Feature code is often scattered across a software system. Scattering is not necessarily bad if used with care, as witnessed by systems with highly scattered features that evolved successfully. Feature scattering, often realized with a pre-processor, circumvents limitations of programming languages and software architectures. Unfortunately, little is known about the principles governing scattering in large and long-living software systems. We present a longitudinal study of feature scattering in the Linux kernel, complemented by a survey with 74, and interviews with nine Linux kernel developers. We analyzed almost eight years of the kernel's history, focusing on its largest subsystem: device drivers. We learned that the ratio of scattered features remained nearly constant and that most features were introduced without scattering. Yet, scattering easily crosses subsystem boundaries, and highly scattered outliers exist. Scattering often addresses a performance-maintenance tradeoff (alleviating complicated APIs), hardware design limitations, and avoids code duplication. While developers do not consciously enforce scattering limits, they actually improve the system design and refactor code, thereby mitigating pre-processor idiosyncrasies or reducing its use. !

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study of Feature Scattering in the Linux Kernel

Passos¹,

Queiroz²,

Mukelabai³

et al. 2021

IIEEE Trans. Software Eng.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Overall, the corpus extraction 5 works in two phases. In the first phase, we create the corpus as described in II-A.…”

Section: B Extracting a Corpus Slicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The C preprocessor has been found to be notoriously harmful owing to obtrusive syntax and hindrance to comprehension and maintainability [3]. Some approaches have been proposed to improve comprehension of projects organized using preprocessors, most notably the work from Le et al [4] or PEoPL [5]. But, they require the code to be well-structured using ifdefs in the first place.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fex: Assisted Identification of Domain Features from C Programs

Müller¹,

Narasimhan²,

Mezini³

2021

Preprint

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Modern software typically performs more than one functionality. These functionalities or features are not always organized in a way for modules representing these features to be used individually. Many software engineering approaches like programming language constructs, or product line visualization techniques have been proposed to organize projects as modules. Unfortunately, much legacy software suffer from years or decades of improper coding practices that leave the modules in the code almost undetectable. In such scenarios, a desirable requirement is to identify modules representing different features to be extracted. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that combines information retrieval and program analysis approaches to allow domain experts to identify slices of the program that represent modules using natural language search terms. We evaluate our approach by building a proof of concept tool in C, and extract modules from open source projects.

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“…Such a mechanism is an implementation technique to realize calibration or variation. In the latter case, it is commonly referred to as a variability mechanism (Van Gurp et al 2001;Berger et al 2014c), ranging from simple conditional compilation (e.g., #ifdef) via control-flow conditional statements (e.g., IF), build systems (Berger et al 2010a;Dietrich et al 2012), and component frameworks to so-called feature modules (Apel and Kästner 2009) or delta modules (Schaefer et al 2010), or combinations thereof (Behringer et al 2017;Mukelabai et al 2018a). The configuration options (a.k.a., calibration parameters or just parameters) and their constraints are typically declared in a model, such as a feature model (explained shortly).…”

Section: Configurationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The state of adoption and the challenges of systematic variability management in industry

et al. 2020

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Handling large-scale software variability is still a challenge for many organizations. After decades of research on variability management concepts, many industrial organizations have introduced techniques known from research, but still lament that pure textbook approaches are not applicable or efficient. For instance, software product line engineering-an approach to systematically develop portfolios of products-is difficult to adopt given the high upfront investments; and even when adopted, organizations are challenged by evolving their complex product lines. Consequently, the research community now mainly focuses on reengineering and evolution techniques for product lines; yet, understanding the current state of adoption and the industrial challenges for organizations is necessary to conceive effective techniques. In this multiple-case study, we analyze the current adoption of variability management techniques in twelve medium-to large-scale industrial cases in domains such as automotive, aerospace or railway systems. We identify the current state of variability management, emphasizing the techniques and concepts they adopted. We elicit the needs and challenges expressed for these cases, triangulated with results from a literature review. We believe our results help to understand the current state of adoption and shed light on gaps to address in industrial practice.

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PEoPL: Projectional Editing of Product Lines

Cited by 25 publications

References 49 publications

A Study of Feature Scattering in the Linux Kernel

A Study of Feature Scattering in the Linux Kernel

Fex: Assisted Identification of Domain Features from C Programs

The state of adoption and the challenges of systematic variability management in industry

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