Article

Eliminating redundancies with a "composition with adaptation" meta-programming technique

Authors:

Li ShubiaoAuthors Info & Claims

ESEC/FSE-11: Proceedings of the 9th European software engineering conference held jointly with 11th ACM SIGSOFT international symposium on Foundations of software engineering

Pages 237 - 246

https://doi.org/10.1145/940071.940104

Published: 01 September 2003 Publication History

Abstract

Redundant code obstructs program understanding and contributes to high maintenance costs. While most experts agree on that, opinions - on how serious the problem of redundancies really is and how to tackle it - differ. In this paper, we present the study of redundancies in the Java Buffer library, JDK 1.4.1, which was recently released by Sun. We found that at least 68% of code in the Buffer library is redundant in the sense that it recurs in many classes in the same or slightly modified form. We effectively eliminated that 68% of code at the meta-level using a technique based on "composition with adaptation" called XVCL. We argue that such a program solution is easier to maintain than buffer classes with redundant code. In this experiment, we have designed our meta-representation so that we could produce buffer classes in exactly the same form as they appear in the original Buffer library. While we have been tempted to re-design the buffer classes, we chose not to do so, in order to allow for the seamless integration of the XVCL solution into contemporary programming methodologies and systems. This decision has not affected the essential results reported in this paper.

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Cited By

Jarzabek S(2017)Managing Software Complexity with Power-GenericsTowards a Synergistic Combination of Research and Practice in Software Engineering10.1007/978-3-319-65208-5_3(31-48)Online publication date: 6-Aug-2017
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65208-5_3
Xing ZXue YJarzabek S(2013)Distilling useful clones by contextual differencing2013 20th Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE)10.1109/WCRE.2013.6671285(102-111)Online publication date: Oct-2013
https://doi.org/10.1109/WCRE.2013.6671285
Wang SLo DJiang X(2013)Understanding Widespread ChangesProceedings of the 2013 17th European Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering10.1109/CSMR.2013.11(5-14)Online publication date: 5-Mar-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/CSMR.2013.11
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Index Terms

Eliminating redundancies with a "composition with adaptation" meta-programming technique
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Software libraries and repositories

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ESEC/FSE-11: Proceedings of the 9th European software engineering conference held jointly with 11th ACM SIGSOFT international symposium on Foundations of software engineering

September 2003

394 pages

ISBN:1581137435

DOI:10.1145/940071

General Chair:
Jukka Paakki
University of Helsinki, Finland
,
Program Chair:
Paola Inverardi
University of L'Aquila, Italy

ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes Volume 28, Issue 5
September 2003
382 pages
ISSN:0163-5948
DOI:10.1145/949952
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2003 ACM.

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Published: 01 September 2003

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ESEC/FSE03

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ESEC/FSE03: Joint 9th European Software Engineering Conference 2003

September 1 - 5, 2003

Helsinki, Finland

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ESEC/FSE-11 Paper Acceptance Rate 33 of 168 submissions, 20%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 112 of 543 submissions, 21%

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Cited By

Jarzabek S(2017)Managing Software Complexity with Power-GenericsTowards a Synergistic Combination of Research and Practice in Software Engineering10.1007/978-3-319-65208-5_3(31-48)Online publication date: 6-Aug-2017
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65208-5_3
Xing ZXue YJarzabek S(2013)Distilling useful clones by contextual differencing2013 20th Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE)10.1109/WCRE.2013.6671285(102-111)Online publication date: Oct-2013
https://doi.org/10.1109/WCRE.2013.6671285
Wang SLo DJiang X(2013)Understanding Widespread ChangesProceedings of the 2013 17th European Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering10.1109/CSMR.2013.11(5-14)Online publication date: 5-Mar-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/CSMR.2013.11
Lucia Lo DJiang LBudi AGlinz MMurphy GPezzè M(2012)Active refinement of clone anomaly reportsProceedings of the 34th International Conference on Software Engineering10.5555/2337223.2337270(397-407)Online publication date: 2-Jun-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2337223.2337270
Lucia Lo DJiang LBudi A(2012)Active refinement of clone anomaly reports2012 34th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE)10.1109/ICSE.2012.6227175(397-407)Online publication date: Jun-2012
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE.2012.6227175
Štuikys VDamaševičius RŠtuikys VDamaševičius R(2012)Multi-Linguistic Aspects of Heterogeneous Meta-Programming in Web ApplicationsMeta-Programming and Model-Driven Meta-Program Development10.1007/978-1-4471-4126-6_15(279-290)Online publication date: 7-Jun-2012
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4126-6_15
Jarzabek SPettersson UZhang H(2011)University-industry collaboration journey towards product linesProceedings of the 12th international conference on Top productivity through software reuse10.5555/2022115.2022139(223-237)Online publication date: 13-Jun-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2022115.2022139
Jarzabek SXue YInoue KJarzabek SKoschke RCordy J(2010)Are clones harmful for maintenance?Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Software Clones10.1145/1808901.1808911(73-74)Online publication date: 8-May-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1808901.1808911
Damaševičius R(2009)Analysis of Components for Generalization using Multidimensional ScalingFundamenta Informaticae10.5555/2362688.236269291:3-4(507-522)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2362688.2362692
Damaševičius R(2009)Analysis of Components for Generalization using Multidimensional ScalingFundamenta Informaticae10.5555/1551775.155177991:3-4(507-522)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1551775.1551779
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