A Compositional Paradigm of Automating Refactorings

Vakilian, Mohsen; Chen, Nicholas; Moghaddam, Roshanak Zilouchian; Negara, Stas; Johnson, Ralph E.

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-39038-8_22

Cited by 20 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The changes are presented directly to the user in the code editor. Our field study [43], analysis of refactoring usage data [42], and survey and lab studies [42] all suggest that overall programmers prefer the compositional paradigm over the existing wizard-based paradigm.…”

Section: A Compositional Refactoringsmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…Each of the existing qualifier inference tools is imprecise, rigid, unpredictable, and specific to a single qualifier checker. Based on our prior studies [42] on compositional and wizard-based paradigms of refactoring, we hypothesize that the underlying problem is once again too much automation.…”

Section: Type Qualifiersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Compositional refactoring [42] was inspired by our studies to find the common reasons of underusing the existing automated refactorings [43]. Compositional refactorings mimic the steps that a programmer takes while performing large refactorings.…”

Section: A Compositional Refactoringsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, some other automation efforts, such as automated refactorings, have not been widely adopted [27], [31], [43]. Our prior work shows that a major cause of the low adoption of refactoring tools is their over-automation [42], [43]. Overautomation leads to inappropriate feedback and interaction, which discourages programmers from using the automation.…”

Section: Future Work a Appropriate Levels Of Automation For Softmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, qualifier inference often goes beyond inserting qualifiers and requires code refactorings. CASCADE was inspired by our work on compositional refactoring [42]. In the compositional paradigm, a refactoring tool designer decomposes a refactoring into a set of primitive changes and automates them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Cascade: A Universal Programmer-Assisted Type Qualifier Inference Tool

Vakilian¹,

Phaosawasdi²,

Ernst³

et al. 2015

2015 IEEE/ACM 37th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering

Self Cite

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Abstract-Type qualifier inference tools usually operate in batch mode and assume that the program must not be changed except to add the type qualifiers. In practice, programs must be changed to make them type-correct, and programmers must understand them. CASCADE is an interactive type qualifier inference tool that is easy to implement and universal (i.e., it can work for any type qualifier system for which a checker is implemented). It shows that qualifier inference can achieve better results by involving programmers rather than relying solely on automation.

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Section: A Compositional Refactoringsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: Type Qualifiersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Compositional Refactoringsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Future Work a Appropriate Levels Of Automation For Softmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Cascade: A Universal Programmer-Assisted Type Qualifier Inference Tool

Vakilian¹,

Phaosawasdi²,

Ernst³

et al. 2015

2015 IEEE/ACM 37th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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A study of refactorings during software change tasks

Eilertsen

Murphy

2021

J Software Evolu Process

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Developers frequently undertake software change tasks that could be partially or fully automated by refactoring tools. As has been reported by others, all too often, these refactoring steps are instead performed manually by developers. These missed opportunities are referred to as occasions of disuse of refactoring tools. We perform an observational study in which 17 developers with professional experience attempt to solve three change tasks with steps amenable to the use of refactoring tools. We found that the strategies developers use to approach these tasks shape their workflow, which, in turn, shape the opportunities for refactoring tool use. We report on a number of findings about developer strategies, demonstrating the difficulty of aligning the kind of refactoring steps that emerge during a change task based on the strategy with the tools available. We also report on findings about refactoring tools, such as the difficulties developers face in controlling the scope of application of the tools. Our findings can help inform the designers of refactoring tools.

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