Quantifying structural attributes of system decompositions in 28 feature-oriented software product lines

Sobernig, Stefan; Apel, Sven; Kolesnikov, Sergiy S.; Siegmund, Norbert

doi:10.1007/s10664-014-9336-6

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 58 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…By these techniques, variability is implemented in code units provided by a host language, such as classes or functions, which do not align well with domain features. Therefore, occasionally and orthogonal to this main decomposition, some approaches are used for annotating (e.g., using preprocessors in C [37]) or putting into separate modules (e.g., with feature modules [6]) all lines of code that belong to each specific domain feature [7,53]. But, while annotations in the form of conditional compilations have received significant attention, their use is often criticized for the code pollution due to #ifdef-s [35,54] and for the occurrence of syntactic and semantic errors during the product derivation [31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying and Visualizing Variability in Object-Oriented Variability-Rich Systems

Tërnava

Mortara

Collet

2019

Proceedings of the 23rd International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume A

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In many variability-intensive systems, variability is implemented in code units provided by a host language, such as classes or functions, which do not align well with the domain features. Annotating or creating an orthogonal decomposition of code in terms of features implies extra effort, as well as massive and cumbersome refactoring activities. In this paper, we introduce an approach for identifying and visualizing the variability implementation places within the main decomposition structure of object-oriented code assets in a single variability-rich system. First, we propose to use symmetry, as a common property of some main implementation techniques, such as inheritance or overloading, to identify uniformly these places. We study symmetry in different constructs (e.g., classes), techniques (e.g., subtyping, overloading) and design patterns (e.g., strategy, factory), and we also show how we can use such symmetries to find variation points with variants. We then report on the implementation and application of a toolchain, symfinder, which automatically identifies and visualizes places with symmetry. The publicly available application to several large open-source systems shows that symfinder can help in characterizing code bases that are variability-rich or not, as well as in discerning zones of interest w.r.t. variability. CCS CONCEPTS• Software and its engineering → Software product lines; Object oriented development; Reusability. KEYWORDSIdentifying software variability, visualizing software variability, object-oriented variability-rich systems, tool support for understanding software variability, software product line engineering

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying and Visualizing Variability in Object-Oriented Variability-Rich Systems

Tërnava

Mortara

Collet

2019

Proceedings of the 23rd International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume A

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To overcome such variability management difficulties, existing approaches use annotations, often preprocessor directives [59], or have proposed to put into separate modules, for example, into aspects, feature modules, or delta modules [6], all lines of code that belong to each specific domain feature [7,83]. In addition, different tools are proposed, for example, pure::variants [36], code tagging [42], or those that propose to use colors, at the representation layer of code, for distinguishing the lines of code that implement each feature [49].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A framework for managing the imperfect modularity of variability implementations

Tërnava

Collet

2020

Journal of Computer Languages

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In many industrial settings, the common and varying features of related software-intensive systems, as their reusable units, are likely to be implemented by a combined set of traditional techniques. Features do not align perfectly well with the used language constructs, e.g., classes, thus hindering the management of implemented variability. Herein, we provide a detailed framework to capture, model, and trace this imperfectly modular variability in terms of variation points with variants. We describe an implementation of this framework, as a domain-specific language, and report on its application on four subject systems and usage for variability management, showing its feasibility. Figure 1: An excerpt of the feature model (FM) of JavaGeom variability-rich system (The FM is created using the FeatureIDE tool [62]).

show abstract

“…Consequently, they lack of standard terminology and formalism, leading to definitions of measures, which are ambiguous and/or difficult to understand. A growing number of studies have identified structural properties of product lines [SOBERNIG et al 2014, QUEIROZ et al 2015 and metrics for product-line [ VAN DER HOEK et al 2003, LIEBIG et al 2010, APEL and BEYER 2011 to overcome the problems aforementioned. Their common goal is the association between: (i) the quantification of characteristics governing either product lines or programming techniques, and (ii) their impact on software maintainability.…”

Section: The Role Of Feature Dependency Properties On Change Propagationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Role of Feature Dependency Properties on Change Propagation 109 evolution. Sobernig and colleagues quantified structural attributes of system decomposition in 28 feature-oriented software product lines [SOBERNIG et al 2014]. They analyse how the alternative decompositions of feature orientation and object orientation compare to each other in terms of their association with observable properties of system structure (i.e., coupling and cohesion).…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Relationship Between Feature Dependencies and Change Propagation

CAFEO¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Quantifying structural attributes of system decompositions in 28 feature-oriented software product lines

Cited by 8 publications

References 58 publications

Identifying and Visualizing Variability in Object-Oriented Variability-Rich Systems

Identifying and Visualizing Variability in Object-Oriented Variability-Rich Systems

A framework for managing the imperfect modularity of variability implementations

On the Relationship Between Feature Dependencies and Change Propagation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About