research-article

Evolution of legacy system comprehensibility through automated refactoring

Authors:

Isaac Griffith,

Clemente IzurietaAuthors Info & Claims

MALETS '11: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Machine Learning Technologies in Software Engineering

Pages 35 - 42

https://doi.org/10.1145/2070821.2070826

Published: 12 November 2011 Publication History

Abstract

Software engineering is a continually evolving discipline, wherein researchers and members of industry are working towards defining and refining what are known as "best practices." Best practices are the set of known correct engineering techniques that lead to quality software.

When a software artifact is produced, it becomes temporally locked into a single instantiation of these best practices at a given point in time. If such software is not maintained in such a way as to keep it current with the evolution of practice, then there is a good chance that subsequent engineers may not understand the design choices made. There are known techniques, called refactorings, which allow for structural changes to software without altering the outward appearance and behavior, thus maintaining the intent of the original design. Unfortunately, refactoring requires an engineer to both understand the techniques to be applied and the code to which they are applied to. This is not always feasible.

We have developed an automated system utilizing Evolutionary Algorithms to manipulate refactorings correctly without requiring an underlying understanding of the software. This then allows for sustained levels of quality of evolving software systems. The understandability, maintainability, and reusability of the software regenerate as best practices evolve.

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Cited By

Kalhor SKeyvanpour MSalajegheh A(2024)A systematic review of refactoring opportunities by software antipattern detectionAutomated Software Engineering10.1007/s10515-024-00443-y31:2Online publication date: 15-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10515-024-00443-y
Kaur SKaur ADhiman G(2021)Deep analysis of quality of primary studies on assessing the impact of refactoring on software qualityMaterials Today: Proceedings10.1016/j.matpr.2020.11.217Online publication date: Jan-2021
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.11.217
Al Dallal JAbdin A(2018)Empirical Evaluation of the Impact of Object-Oriented Code Refactoring on Quality Attributes: A Systematic Literature ReviewIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2017.265857344:1(44-69)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2018
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2017.2658573

Index Terms

Evolution of legacy system comprehensibility through automated refactoring
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management

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MALETS '11: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Machine Learning Technologies in Software Engineering

November 2011

58 pages

ISBN:9781450310222

DOI:10.1145/2070821

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]

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Published: 12 November 2011

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MALETS '11: International Workshop on Machine Learning Technologies in Software Engineering

November 12, 2011

Kansas, Lawrence, USA

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Cited By

Kalhor SKeyvanpour MSalajegheh A(2024)A systematic review of refactoring opportunities by software antipattern detectionAutomated Software Engineering10.1007/s10515-024-00443-y31:2Online publication date: 15-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10515-024-00443-y
Kaur SKaur ADhiman G(2021)Deep analysis of quality of primary studies on assessing the impact of refactoring on software qualityMaterials Today: Proceedings10.1016/j.matpr.2020.11.217Online publication date: Jan-2021
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.11.217
Al Dallal JAbdin A(2018)Empirical Evaluation of the Impact of Object-Oriented Code Refactoring on Quality Attributes: A Systematic Literature ReviewIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2017.265857344:1(44-69)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2018
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2017.2658573

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