Article

Micro patterns in Java code

Authors:

Joseph (Yossi) Gil,

Itay MamanAuthors Info & Claims

OOPSLA '05: Proceedings of the 20th annual ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object-oriented programming, systems, languages, and applications

Pages 97 - 116

https://doi.org/10.1145/1094811.1094819

Published: 12 October 2005 Publication History

Abstract

Micro patterns are similar to design patterns, except that micro patterns are stand at a lower, closer to the implementation, level of abstraction. Micro patterns are also unique in that they are mechanically recognizable, since each such pattern can be expressed as a formal condition on the structure of a class.This paper presents a catalog of 27 micro-patterns defined on Java classes and interfaces. The catalog captures a wide spectrum of common programming practices, including a particular and (intentionally restricted) use of inheritance, immutability, data management and wrapping, restricted creation, and emulation of procedural-, modular-, and even functional- programming paradigms with object oriented constructs. Together, the patterns present a set of prototypes after which a large portion of all Java classes and interfaces are modeled. We provide empirical indication that this portion is as high as 75%.A statistical analysis of occurrences of micro patterns in a large software corpus, spanning some 70,000 Java classes drawn from a rich set of application domains, shows, with high confidence level that the use of these patterns is not random. These results indicate consciousness and discernible design decisions, which are sustained in the software evolution. With high confidence level, we can also show that the use of these patterns is tied to the specification, or the purpose, that the software realizes.The traceability, abundance and the statistical significance of micro pattern occurrence raise the hope of using the classification of software into these patterns for a more founded appreciation of its design and code quality.

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Index Terms

Micro patterns in Java code
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages

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cover image ACM Conferences

OOPSLA '05: Proceedings of the 20th annual ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object-oriented programming, systems, languages, and applications

October 2005

562 pages

ISBN:1595930310

DOI:10.1145/1094811

Conference Chairs:
Ralph Johnson
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
,
Elisa Baniassad
Chinese University of Hong Kong
,
Program Chairs:
Richard P. Gabriel
Sun Microsystems Laboratories
,
James Noble
Victoria University of Wellington
,
Brian Marick
Exampler Consulting

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 40, Issue 10
Proceedings of the 20th annual ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object oriented programming systems languages and applications
October 2005
531 pages
ISSN:0362-1340
EISSN:1558-1160
DOI:10.1145/1103845
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2005 ACM.

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Published: 12 October 2005

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3597503.3639135
Lu TWang XJia T(2024)Design Pattern Representation and Detection Based on Heterogeneous Information NetworkReuse and Software Quality10.1007/978-3-031-66459-5_5(72-91)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66459-5_5
Wang SWen MLin BLiu YBissyandé TMao X(2023)Pre-implementation Method Name Prediction for Object-oriented ProgrammingACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/359720332:6(1-35)Online publication date: 29-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3597203
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