Support for maintaining object-oriented programs

Abstract

Abstract-In this paper, we explain how inheritance and dynamic binding make object-oriented programs difficult to maintain, and we give a concrete example of the problems that arise. We show that the difficulty lies in the fact that conventional tools are poorly suited for work with object-oriented languages, and we argue that semantics-based tools are essential 'for effective maintenance of object-oriented programs.We then describe a system we have developed for working with C++ programs. This system comprises a relational database system for information about programs and an interactive database interface integrated with a te&t editor. We describe our system architecture, detail the database relations, provide informal evidence on the system's effectiveness, and compare it to other research with similar goals.Index Terms-C++, object-oriented languages and environments, programming environments, semantic analysis of code, software maintenance, software representation in relational databases.

Object-Oriented Metrics: A Review of Theory and Practice

“…The study by Wilde et al (Wilde et al, 1993) indicated that, to understand the behavior of a method, one has to trace inheritance dependencies, which may be considerably complicated due to dynamic binding. A similar point was made in (Leijter et al, 1992) about the understandability of programs in such languages as C++ that support dynamic binding.…”

“…That is, the complete description for a class D can only be assembled by examining D as well as each of D' s superclasses. Because different classes are described at different places in the source code of a program (often spread across several different files), there is no single place a programmer can turn to get a complete description of a class" (Leijter, Meyers, and Reiss, 1992). While this argument is stated in terms of source code, it is not difficult to generalize it to design documents.…”

Topology analysis of software dependencies

“…Support for code investigation and understanding was initially developed in the form of stand-alone lexical search tools (e.g., grep [Aho 1980]) and program databases (e.g., CIA [Chen et al 1990], XREFDB [Lejter et al 1992]). Basic program search and cross-referencing tools have also been provided as part of integrated development environments for many decades (e.g., in Interlisp [Sanella 1983], Smalltalk [Goldberg 1984], and Eclipse [Object Technology International, Inc. 2001]).…”

Suade: Topology-Based Searches for Software Investigation

“…Tool support for program investigation and understanding was initially developed in the form of standalone lexical search tools (e.g., grep [1]) and program databases (e.g., CIA [2], and XREFDB [4]). Basic program search and cross-referencing tools have also been provided as part of integrated development environments for many decades (e.g., in Interlisp [9], Smalltalk [3], and Eclipse [5]).…”