Title :
XRay views: understanding the internals of classes
Author :
Arévalo, Gabriela ; Ducasse, Stéphane ; Nierstrasz, Oscar
Author_Institution :
Software Composition Group, Bern Univ., Switzerland
Abstract :
Understanding the internal workings of classes is a key prerequisite to maintaining an object-oriented software system. Unfortunately, classical editing and browsing tools offer mainly linear and textual views of classes and their implementation. These views fail to expose the semantic relationships between the internal parts of a class. We propose X-Ray views - a technique based on concept analysis - which reveal the internal relationships between groups of methods and attributes of a class. X-Ray views are composed of elementary collaborations between attributes and methods, and help the engineer to build a mental model of how a class works internally. In this paper we present X-Ray views, and illustrate the approach by applying it on the Smalltalk class UIBuilder.
Keywords :
Smalltalk; object-oriented programming; reverse engineering; software maintenance; systems re-engineering; Smalltalk class; UIBuilder; X-Ray views; class understanding; concept analysis; elementary collaborations; internal relationships; logical views; mental model; object-oriented software system; Cognitive science; Collaboration; Collaborative tools; Collaborative work; Lattices; Legged locomotion; Protection; Runtime; Software maintenance; Software systems;
Conference_Titel :
Automated Software Engineering, 2003. Proceedings. 18th IEEE International Conference on
Print_ISBN :
0-7695-2035-9
DOI :
10.1109/ASE.2003.1240318