Tracing Imperfectly Modular Variability in Software Product Line Implementation

Tërnava, Xhevahire; Collet, Philippe

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-56856-0_8

Cited by 7 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Commonality is a common part of the related variant parts, which are used to distinguish the software products within an SPL. After the commonality is factorized from the variability and implemented, it becomes part of the core [61], except when it represents some optional variability [59]. Such commonalities and variabilities are usually abstracted in terms of variation points (vp-s) with variants, respectively, which are related to concrete elements in reusable code assets.…”

Section: Background 21 Variability In Reusable Code Assetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Geometry related and charting capabilities being typical of some variability to be handled, we first selected JavaGeom, a library for manipulating and processing several families of geometric shapes, already used in other studies [59], JFreeChart, a charting library, and the AWT part of the Java Development Kit. We then selected two projects from the Apache consortium, CXF, a fully featured Web services framework, which could contain variability in its implementation, and Maven, the build automation tool, which architecture is strongly based on plug-ins.…”

Section: Validation Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Identifying and Visualizing Variability in Object-Oriented Variability-Rich Systems

Tërnava

Mortara

Collet

2019

Proceedings of the 23rd International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume A

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In many variability-intensive systems, variability is implemented in code units provided by a host language, such as classes or functions, which do not align well with the domain features. Annotating or creating an orthogonal decomposition of code in terms of features implies extra effort, as well as massive and cumbersome refactoring activities. In this paper, we introduce an approach for identifying and visualizing the variability implementation places within the main decomposition structure of object-oriented code assets in a single variability-rich system. First, we propose to use symmetry, as a common property of some main implementation techniques, such as inheritance or overloading, to identify uniformly these places. We study symmetry in different constructs (e.g., classes), techniques (e.g., subtyping, overloading) and design patterns (e.g., strategy, factory), and we also show how we can use such symmetries to find variation points with variants. We then report on the implementation and application of a toolchain, symfinder, which automatically identifies and visualizes places with symmetry. The publicly available application to several large open-source systems shows that symfinder can help in characterizing code bases that are variability-rich or not, as well as in discerning zones of interest w.r.t. variability. CCS CONCEPTS• Software and its engineering → Software product lines; Object oriented development; Reusability. KEYWORDSIdentifying software variability, visualizing software variability, object-oriented variability-rich systems, tool support for understanding software variability, software product line engineering

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Section: Background 21 Variability In Reusable Code Assetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Validation Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying and Visualizing Variability in Object-Oriented Variability-Rich Systems

Tërnava

Mortara

Collet

2019

Proceedings of the 23rd International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume A

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“…We also showed that both features and vp-s with variants can be used to capture variability in core-code assets but, although their meaning overlaps, they are not the same (I2). We used this analysis on the diversity of variability implementation techniques to build a framework for capturing and tracing the implemented variability [30]. The framework is implemented as an internal domain speci c language (DSL) in Scala and uses re ection to capture variability in terms of vp-s and variants.…”

Section: Discussion and Future Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, from the captured variability in Table 6 we can reconstruct an FM similar to the original FM of Figure 1 using the domain speci c language (DSL) we previously proposed [30]. It notably provides mechanisms to capture and document the implemented variability in terms of vp-s and variants, thus helping to reconstruct a variability model.…”

Section: Capturing Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A commonality is the common part for the related variant parts within a sub-domain. After the commonality is factorized from the variability and implemented it becomes part of the core, i.e., it is buried in the core [9], except when it represents some optional variability [30]. The variant parts are used to distinguish the software products in the domain.…”

Section: Variability Realization 21 Variable Parts In Core-code Assetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Diversity of Capturing Variability at the Implementation Level

Tërnava

Collet

2017

Proceedings of the 21st International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume B

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In many Software product lines (SPLs), if domain variability can be properly speci ed in terms of features in a feature model (FM), their implementation in core-code assets is hard to capture and maintain, as there are di erent techniques to implement the variability. Even with an organization in variation points and variants, most of these techniques do not shape the code in terms of features, and inconsistencies appear when the variability evolves at one level with no co-evolution at the other. To help SPL architects, one possible solution is to be able to reconstruct the FM by capturing the variability in core-code assets, but di erent implementation techniques expose diverse characteristics, hampering the process. We study in this paper the diverse dimensions of the existing variability implementation techniques, and how they can be captured in an abstract way. We then categorize them regarding these dimensions in a single catalog, extending previous classi cations of such techniques. We also brie y show how the characteristics of the techniques could help to better capture the implemented variability, opening some potential in reverse engineering processes.

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Identification and visualization of variability implementations in object-oriented variability-rich systems: a symmetry-based approach

et al. 2022

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Most modern object-oriented software systems are variability-rich, despite that they may not be developed as product lines. Their variability is implemented by several traditional techniques in combination, such as inheritance, overloading, or design patterns. As domain features or variation points with variants are not a by-product of these techniques, variability in code assets of such systems is implicit, and hardly documented, hampering qualities such as understandability and maintainability. In this article, we present an approach for automatic identification and visualization of variability implementation places, that is, variation points with variants, in variability-rich systems. To uniformly identify them, we propose to rely on the existing symmetries in the different software constructs and patterns. We then propose to visualize them according to their density. By means of our realized toolchain implementing the approach, symfinder , we report on a threefold evaluation, (i) on the identified potential variability in sixteen large open-source systems and symfinder 's scalability, (ii) on measuring symfinder 's precision and robustness when mapping identified variability to domain features, and (iii) on its usage by a software architect. Results show that symfinder can indeed help in identifying and comprehending the variability of the targeted systems.

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Tracing Imperfectly Modular Variability in Software Product Line Implementation

Cited by 7 publications

References 10 publications

Identifying and Visualizing Variability in Object-Oriented Variability-Rich Systems

Identifying and Visualizing Variability in Object-Oriented Variability-Rich Systems

On the Diversity of Capturing Variability at the Implementation Level

Identification and visualization of variability implementations in object-oriented variability-rich systems: a symmetry-based approach

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