research-article

The Choice Calculus: A Representation for Software Variation

Authors:

Eric WalkingshawAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), Volume 21, Issue 1

Article No.: 6, Pages 1 - 27

https://doi.org/10.1145/2063239.2063245

Published: 01 December 2011 Publication History

Abstract

Many areas of computer science are concerned with some form of variation in software---from managing changes to software over time to supporting families of related artifacts. We present the choice calculus, a fundamental representation for software variation that can serve as a common language of discourse for variation research, filling a role similar to the lambda calculus in programming language research. We also develop an associated theory of software variation, including sound transformations of variation artifacts, the definition of strategic normal forms, and a design theory for variation structures, which will support the development of better algorithms and tools.

Supplementary Material

PDF File (a6-erwig_appendix.pdf)

The proof is given in an electronic appendix, available online in the ACM Digital Library.

Download
51.80 KB

References

[1]

Apel, S., Leich, T., and Saake, G. 2008a. Aspectual feature modules. IEEE Trans. Softw. Engin. 34, 2, 162--180.

Digital Library

[2]

Apel, S., Lengauer, C., Möller, B., and Kästner, C. 2008b. An algebra for features and feature composition. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Algebraic Methodology and Software Technology. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 5140, Springer, 36--50.

Digital Library

[3]

Assmann, U. 2003. Invasive Software Composition. Springer, New York.

Digital Library

[4]

Batory, D. 2005. Feature models, grammars, and propositional formulas. In Proceedings of the International Software Product Line Conference. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 3714, Springer, 7--20.

Digital Library

[5]

Batory, D. and O’Malley, S. 1992. The design and implementation of hierarchical software systems with reusable components. ACM Trans. Softw. Engin. Methodol. 1, 4, 355--398.

Digital Library

[6]

Batory, D., Lopez-Herrejon, R. E., and Martin, J.-P. 2002. Generating product-lines of product families. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering. 81--92.

Digital Library

[7]

Batory, D., Liu, J., and Sarvela, J. N. 2003. Refinements and multidimensional separation of concerns. In Proceedings of the 9th European Software Engineering Conference. 48--57.

Digital Library

[8]

Batory, D., Sarvela, J. N., and Rauschmayer, A. 2004. Scaling step-wise refinement. IEEE Trans. Softw. Engin. 30, 6, 355--371.

Digital Library

[9]

Bracha, G. and Cook, W. 1990. Mixin-based inheritance. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications. 303--311.

Digital Library

[10]

Buckley, J., Mens, T., Zenger, M., Rashid, A., and Kniesel, G. 2004. Towards a taxonomy of software change. J. Software Maint. Evol. Resear. Pract.

Digital Library

[11]

Date, C. J. 2005. Database in Depth: Relational Theory for Practitioners. O’Reilly Media, Inc.

Digital Library

[12]

Ernst, M. D., Badros, G. J., and Notkin, D. 2002. An empirical analysis of C preprocessor use. IEEE Trans. Softw. Engin. 28, 12, 1146--1170.

Digital Library

[13]

Estublier, J., Leblang, D., van der Hoek, A., Conradi, R., Clemm, G., Tichy, W., and Wiborg-Weber, D. 2005. Impact of software engineering research on the practice of software configuration management. ACM Trans. Softw. Engin. Methodol. 14, 4, 383--430.

Digital Library

[14]

GNU Project. 2009. The C Preprocessor. Free Software Foundation. Free Software Foundation. http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/cpp/.

[15]

Höfner, P., Khedri, R., and Möller, B. 2006. Feature algebra. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Formal Methods. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4085, Springer, 300--315.

Digital Library

[16]

Kang, K. C., Cohen, S. G., Hess, J. A., Novak, W. E., and Peterson, A. S. 1990. Feature-oriented domain analysis (FODA) feasibility study. Tech. rep. CMU/SEI-90-TR-21, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University.

[17]

Kästner, C., Apel, S., and Kuhlemann, M. 2008. Granularity in software product lines. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering. 311--320.

Digital Library

[18]

Kästner, C., Apel, S., ur Rahman, S. S., Rosenmüller, M., Batory, D., and Saake, G. 2009. On the impact of the optional feature problem: Analysis and case studies. In Proceedings of the International Software Product Line Conference. 181--190.

Digital Library

[19]

Kiczales, G., Lamping, J., Mendhekar, A., Maeda, C., Lopes, C. V., Loingtier, J.-M., and Irwin, J. 1997. Aspect-oriented programming. In Proceedings of the European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 1241, Springer, 220--242.

[20]

Liu, J., Batory, D., and Lengauer, C. 2006. Feature oriented refactoring of legacy applications. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering. 112--121.

Digital Library

[21]

Mezini, M. and Ostermann, K. 2004. Variability management with feature-oriented programming and aspects. ACM SIGSOFT Softw. Engin. Notes 29, 6, 127--136.

Digital Library

[22]

Ossher, H. and Tarr, P. 2000. Hyper/J: Multidimensional separation of concerns for Java. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering. 734--737.

Digital Library

[23]

Parnas, D. L. 1976. On the design and development of program families. IEEE Trans. Softw. Engin. 2, 1, 1--9.

Digital Library

[24]

Pohl, K., Böckle, G., and van der Linden, F. 2005. Software Product Line Engineering: Foundations, Principles, and Techniques. Springer.

Digital Library

[25]

Rosenthal, M. 2009. Alternative features in colored featherweight Java. M.S. thesis, University of Passau, Germany. (In German).

[26]

Schobbens, P.-Y., Heymans, P., and Trigaux, J.-C. 2006. Feature diagrams: A survey and a formal semantics. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference. 139--148.

Digital Library

[27]

Spencer, H. and Collyer, G. 1992. #ifdef considered harmful, or portability experience with C news. In Proceedings of the USENIX Summer Conference. 185--198.

[28]

Szekely, P., Luo, P., and Neches, R. 1992. Facilitating the exploration of interface design alternatives: The HUMANOID model of interface design. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 507--515.

Digital Library

[29]

Tarr, P., Ossher, H., Harrison, W., and Sutton Jr., S. M. 1999. N degrees of separation: Multidimensional separation of concerns. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering. 107--119.

Digital Library

[30]

Tichy, W. F. 1982. Design, implementation, and evaluation of a revision control system. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Software Engineering, 58--67.

Digital Library

[31]

Walrad, C. and Strom, D. 2002. The importance of branching models in SCM. Computer 35, 9, 31--38.

Digital Library

[32]

Westfechtel, B., Munch, B. P., and Conradi, R. 2001. A layered architecture for uniform version management. IEEE Trans. Softw. Engin. 27, 12, 1111--1133.

Digital Library

[33]

Wingerd, L. and Seiwald, C. 1998. High-level best practices in software configuration management. In Proceedings of the Symposium on System Configuration Management. 57--66.

Digital Library

[34]

Zhang, H. and Jarzabek, S. 2004. A mechanism for handling variants in software product lines. Sci. Comput. Program. 53, 3, 381--407.

Digital Library

Cited By

Ahmmed JCohen MGazzillo PFilkov VRay BZhou M(2024)Towards Automated Configuration DocumentationProceedings of the 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering10.1145/3691620.3695311(2256-2261)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3691620.3695311
Bittner PSchultheiß AMoosherr BYoung JTeixeira LWalkingshaw EAtaei PThüm T(2024)On the Expressive Power of Languages for Static VariabilityProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36897478:OOPSLA2(1018-1050)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3689747
Mahdavi-Hezaveh RFatima SWilliams L(2024)Paving a Path for a Combined Family of Feature Toggle and Configuration Option ResearchACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/367255533:7(1-27)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3672555
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

The Choice Calculus: A Representation for Software Variation

Recommendations

Formula choice calculus
FOSD 2016: Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Feature-Oriented Software Development

The choice calculus is a simple metalanguage and associated theory that has been successfully applied to several problems of interest to the feature-oriented software development community. The formal presentation of the choice calculus essentially ...
Crosstalk Noise Variation Assessment and Analysis for the Worst Process Corner
ISQED '08: Proceedings of the 9th international symposium on Quality Electronic Design

As the relative levels of coupling capacitance in smaller process geometries and of process variations caused due to lithography, CMP, and Etch process increases, process variation aware coupled noise analysis is becoming more important especially at ...
Fast min-cost buffer insertion under process variations
DAC '07: Proceedings of the 44th annual Design Automation Conference

Process variation has become a critical problem in modern VLSI fabrication. In the presence of process variation, buffer insertion problem under performance constraints becomes more difficult since the solution space expands greatly. We propose ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology

ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology Volume 21, Issue 1

December 2011

205 pages

ISSN:1049-331X

EISSN:1557-7392

DOI:10.1145/2063239

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2011 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 December 2011

Accepted: 01 August 2010

Revised: 01 August 2010

Received: 01 January 2010

Published in TOSEM Volume 21, Issue 1

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article
Research
Refereed

Funding Sources

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

149
Total Citations
View Citations
782
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)9
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1

Reflects downloads up to 01 Jan 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Ahmmed JCohen MGazzillo PFilkov VRay BZhou M(2024)Towards Automated Configuration DocumentationProceedings of the 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering10.1145/3691620.3695311(2256-2261)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3691620.3695311
Bittner PSchultheiß AMoosherr BYoung JTeixeira LWalkingshaw EAtaei PThüm T(2024)On the Expressive Power of Languages for Static VariabilityProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36897478:OOPSLA2(1018-1050)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3689747
Mahdavi-Hezaveh RFatima SWilliams L(2024)Paving a Path for a Combined Family of Feature Toggle and Configuration Option ResearchACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/367255533:7(1-27)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3672555
Campora JKhan MChen S(2024)Type-Based Gradual Typing Performance OptimizationProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36329318:POPL(2667-2699)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3632931
Casaluce RBurattin AChiaromonte FLafuente AVandin A(2024)White-box validation of quantitative product lines by statistical model checking and process miningJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2024.111983210:COnline publication date: 1-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.jss.2024.111983
Damiani FKamburjan ELienhardt MPaolini L(2023)Deltas for Functional Programs with Algebraic Data TypesProceedings of the 27th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume A10.1145/3579027.3608977(52-63)Online publication date: 28-Aug-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3579027.3608977
Foures DAcher MBarais OCombemale BJézéquel JKienzle J(2023)Experience in Specializing a Generic Realization Language for SPL Engineering at Airbus2023 ACM/IEEE 26th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS)10.1109/MODELS58315.2023.00035(319-330)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/MODELS58315.2023.00035
Young JBittner PWalkingshaw EThüm T(2023)Variational satisfiability solving: efficiently solving lots of related SAT problemsEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-022-10217-328:1Online publication date: 1-Jan-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-022-10217-3
Lubis LTanabe YAotani TMasuhara HFischer BBurgueño LCazzola W(2022)BatakJava: An Object-Oriented Programming Language with VersionsProceedings of the 15th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language Engineering10.1145/3567512.3567531(222-234)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3567512.3567531
Gazzillo PCohen MScholliers CSinger J(2022)Bringing Together Configuration Research: Towards a Common GroundProceedings of the 2022 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software10.1145/3563835.3568737(259-269)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3563835.3568737
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Article

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Issue’s Table of Contents