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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Proactive Empirical Assessment Of New Language Feature Adoption Via Automated Refactoring: The Case Of Java 8 Default Methods, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Hidehiko Masuhara
Proactive Empirical Assessment Of New Language Feature Adoption Via Automated Refactoring: The Case Of Java 8 Default Methods, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Hidehiko Masuhara
Publications and Research
Programming languages and platforms improve over time, sometimes resulting in new language features that offer many benefits. However, despite these benefits, developers may not always be willing to adopt them in their projects for various reasons. In this paper, we describe an empirical study where we assess the adoption of a particular new language feature. Studying how developers use (or do not use) new language features is important in programming language research and engineering because it gives designers insight into the usability of the language to create meaning programs in that language. This knowledge, in turn, can drive future innovations …
Proactive Empirical Assessment Of New Language Feature Adoption Via Automated Refactoring: The Case Of Java 8 Default Methods, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Hidehiko Masuhara
Proactive Empirical Assessment Of New Language Feature Adoption Via Automated Refactoring: The Case Of Java 8 Default Methods, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Hidehiko Masuhara
Publications and Research
Programming languages and platforms improve over time, sometimes resulting in new language features that offer many benefits. However, despite these benefits, developers may not always be willing to adopt them in their projects for various reasons. In this paper, we describe an empirical study where we assess the adoption of a particular new language feature. Studying how developers use (or do not use) new language features is important in programming language research and engineering because it gives designers insight into the usability of the language to create meaning programs in that language. This knowledge, in turn, can drive future innovations …
Defaultification Refactoring: A Tool For Automatically Converting Java Methods To Default, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Hidehiko Masuhara
Defaultification Refactoring: A Tool For Automatically Converting Java Methods To Default, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Hidehiko Masuhara
Publications and Research
Enabling interfaces to declare (instance) method implementations, Java 8 default methods can be used as a substitute for the ubiquitous skeletal implementation software design pattern. Performing this transformation on legacy software manually, though, may be non-trivial. The refactoring requires analyzing complex type hierarchies, resolving multiple implementation inheritance issues, reconciling differences between class and interface methods, and analyzing tie-breakers (dispatch precedence) with overriding class methods. All of this is necessary to preserve type-correctness and confirm semantics preservation. We demonstrate an automated refactoring tool called Migrate Skeletal Implementation to Interface for transforming legacy Java code to use the new default construct. The …
Automated Refactoring Of Legacy Java Software To Default Methods, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Hidehiko Masuhara
Automated Refactoring Of Legacy Java Software To Default Methods, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Hidehiko Masuhara
Publications and Research
Java 8 default methods, which allow interfaces to contain (instance) method implementations, are useful for the skeletal implementation software design pattern. However, it is not easy to transform existing software to exploit default methods as it requires analyzing complex type hierarchies, resolving multiple implementation inheritance issues, reconciling differences between class and interface methods, and analyzing tie-breakers (dispatch precedence) with overriding class methods to preserve type-correctness and confirm semantics preservation. In this paper, we present an efficient, fully-automated, type constraint-based refactoring approach that assists developers in taking advantage of enhanced interfaces for their legacy Java software. The approach features an extensive …
Automated Refactoring Of Legacy Java Software To Default Methods, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Hidehiko Masuhara
Automated Refactoring Of Legacy Java Software To Default Methods, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Hidehiko Masuhara
Publications and Research
Java 8 introduces enhanced interfaces, allowing for default (instance) methods that implementers will inherit if none are provided [3]. Default methods can be used [2] as a replacement of the skeletal implementation pattern [1], which creates abstract skeletal implementation classes that implementers extend. Migrating legacy code using the skeletal implementation pattern to instead use default methods can require significant manual effort due to subtle language and semantic restrictions. It requires preserving typecorrectness by analyzing complex type hierarchies, resolving issues arising from multiple inheritance, reconciling differences between class and interface methods, and ensuring tie-breakers with overriding class methods do not alter …
Automated Refactoring Of Legacy Java Software To Default Methods, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Hidehiko Masuhara
Automated Refactoring Of Legacy Java Software To Default Methods, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Hidehiko Masuhara
Publications and Research
Java 8 default methods, which allow interfaces to contain (instance) method implementations, are useful for the skeletal implementation software design pattern. However, it is not easy to transform existing software to exploit default methods as it requires analyzing complex type hierarchies, resolving multiple implementation inheritance issues, reconciling differences between class and interface methods, and analyzing tie-breakers (dispatch precedence) with overriding class methods to preserve type-correctness and confirm semantics preservation. In this paper, we present an efficient, fully-automated, type constraint-based refactoring approach that assists developers in taking advantage of enhanced interfaces for their legacy Java software. The approach features an extensive …
Towards Improving Interface Modularity In Legacy Java Software Through Automated Refactoring, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Olivia Moore, Hidehiko Masuhara
Towards Improving Interface Modularity In Legacy Java Software Through Automated Refactoring, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Olivia Moore, Hidehiko Masuhara
Publications and Research
The skeletal implementation pattern is a software design pattern that defines an abstract class that provides a partial interface implementation. However, since Java allows only single class inheritance, if implementers decide to extend a skeletal implementation, they will not be allowed to extend any other class. Also, discovering the skeletal implementation may require a global analysis. Java 8 enhanced interfaces alleviate these problems by enabling interfaces to contain (default) method implementations, which implementers inherit. Java classes are then free to extend a different class, and a separate abstract class is no longer needed; developers considering implementing an interface need only …
Towards Improving Interface Modularity In Legacy Java Software Through Automated Refactoring, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Olivia Moore, Hidehiko Masuhara
Towards Improving Interface Modularity In Legacy Java Software Through Automated Refactoring, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Olivia Moore, Hidehiko Masuhara
Publications and Research
The skeletal implementation pattern is a software design pattern consisting of defining an abstract class that provides a partial interface implementation. However, since Java allows only single class inheritance, if implementers decide to extend a skeletal implementation, they will not be allowed to extend any other class. Also, discovering the skeletal implementation may require a global analysis. Java 8 enhanced interfaces alleviate these problems by allowing interfaces to contain (default) method implementations, which implementers inherit. Java classes are then free to extend a different class, and a separate abstract class is no longer needed; developers considering implementing an interface need …
Automated Refactoring Of Legacy Java Software To Enumerated Types, Raffi T. Khatchadourian
Automated Refactoring Of Legacy Java Software To Enumerated Types, Raffi T. Khatchadourian
Publications and Research
Modern Java languages introduce several new features that offer significant improvements over older Java technology. In this article we consider the new enum construct, which provides language support for enumerated types. Prior to recent Java languages, programmers needed to employ various patterns (e.g., the weak enum pattern) to compensate for the absence of enumerated types in Java. Unfortunately, these compensation patterns lack several highly-desirable properties of the enum construct, most notably, type safety. We present a novel fully-automated approach for transforming legacy Java code to use the new enumeration construct. This semantics-preserving approach increases type safety, produces code that is …
Detecting Broken Pointcuts Using Structural Commonality And Degree Of Interest, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Awais Rashd, Hidehiko Masuhara, Takuya Watanabe
Detecting Broken Pointcuts Using Structural Commonality And Degree Of Interest, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Awais Rashd, Hidehiko Masuhara, Takuya Watanabe
Publications and Research
Pointcut fragility is a well-documented problem in Aspect-Oriented Programming; changes to the base code can lead to join points incorrectly falling in or out of the scope of pointcuts. Deciding which pointcuts have broken due to base-code changes is daunting, especially in large and complex systems. We present an automated approach that recommends pointcuts that are likely to require modification due to a certain base-code change and ones that do not. Our hypothesis is that join points selected by a pointcut exhibit common structural characteristics. Patterns describing such commonalities recommend pointcuts that have potentially broken to the developer. The approach …
Enumeration Refactoring: A Tool For Automatically Converting Java Constants To Enumerated Types, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Benjamin Muskalla
Enumeration Refactoring: A Tool For Automatically Converting Java Constants To Enumerated Types, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Benjamin Muskalla
Publications and Research
Java 5 introduces several new features that significantly improve older Java technology. We consider the new enum construct, which provides language support for enumerated types. Before Java 5, programmers needed to employ various patterns to compensate for the absence of enumerated types in Java. Unfortunately, these compensation patterns lack several highly desirable properties of the enum construct, notably type-safety. We demonstrate an automated refactoring tool called Convert Constants to Enum for transforming legacy Java code to use the new enumeration construct. An interprocedural type inferencing algorithm that tracks the flow of enumerated values drives the approach, and the tool is …
Automated Refactoring Of Legacy Java Software To Enumerated Types, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Jason Sawin, Atanas Rountev
Automated Refactoring Of Legacy Java Software To Enumerated Types, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Jason Sawin, Atanas Rountev
Publications and Research
Modern Java languages introduce several new features that offer significant improvements over older Java technology. In this article we consider the new enum construct, which provides language support for enumerated types. Prior to recent Java languages, programmers needed to employ various patterns (e.g., the weak enum pattern) to compensate for the absence of enumerated types in Java. Unfortunately, these compensation patterns lack several highly-desirable properties of the enum construct, most notably, type safety. We present a novel fully-automated approach for transforming legacy Java code to use the new enumeration construct. This semantics-preserving approach increases type safety, produces code that is …
Automated Refactoring Of Legacy Java Software To Enumerated Types, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Jason Sawin, Atanas Rountev
Automated Refactoring Of Legacy Java Software To Enumerated Types, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Jason Sawin, Atanas Rountev
Publications and Research
Modern Java languages introduce several new features that offer significant improvements over older Java technology. In this article we consider the new enum construct, which provides language support for enumerated types. Prior to recent Java languages, programmers needed to employ various patterns (e.g., the weak enum pattern) to compensate for the absence of enumerated types in Java. Unfortunately, these compensation patterns lack several highly-desirable properties of the enum construct, most notably, type safety. We present a novel fully-automated approach for transforming legacy Java code to use the new enumeration construct. This semantics-preserving approach increases type safety, produces code that is …