Where is my feature and what is it about? A case study on recovering feature facets

Krüger, Jacob; Mukelabai, Mukelabai; Gu, Wanzi; Shen, Hui; Hebig, Regina; Berger, Thorsten

doi:10.1016/j.jss.2019.01.057

Cited by 50 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…In these approaches, features commonly tend to describe the domain variability of an SPL or variability-rich system, but are required to be known in advance [10], [40]. However, domain variability is hardly documented in variability-rich systems [46], and with a single codebase, reengineering of features from clones of a system cannot be used [47]. As a result, migrating requires substantial manual effort and implies a complete paradigm shift.…”

Section: A Object-oriented Variability Implementationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visualization of Object-Oriented Variability Implementations as Cities

Mortara¹,

Collet²,

Dery³

2021

Preprint

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Many large software systems are variability-rich, object-oriented, and implemented in a single code base. They then rely on multiple traditional techniques (inheritance, patterns) to realize variability, making these implementations not explicit. This directly hampers the comprehension of variability implementations, especially for newcomers in a project that need, in a short time, to understand the most important parts. In this paper, we propose VariCity, a visualization using the city metaphor to exhibit zones of interest, being zones of high density of variability implementations. The different forms of variability implementations are first detected through the usage of symmetries in code (e.g., inheritance defines a substitution symmetry between the immutable part of the superclass and the possible changes in its subclasses). VariCity then creates a 3D city representation with buildings being classes while the metrics on the number of symmetries (e.g., the number of overloaded methods, influence the building size, and their color if they are heavily loaded in symmetries). Contrary to the usual packagebased organization in code-related city representations, the city streets are arranged according to the usage relationships between classes. Inheritance is simply represented with hoverable aerial links. Variability-related design patterns are depicted as buildings with specific geometric forms, while some classes specified as entry points can help in shaping the whole city organization. We also report on the evaluation of VariCity on a set of large objectoriented systems, showing that several usage scenarios helping a newcomer to spot critical variability-related zones are covered.

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Section: A Object-oriented Variability Implementationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visualization of Object-Oriented Variability Implementations as Cities

Mortara¹,

Collet²,

Dery³

2021

Preprint

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“…Basierend auf den definierten Modellen werden wir an der Entwicklung von geeigneten Werkzeugen arbeiten, um (i) SiCPPS-Zielartefakte zu generieren und zu konfigurieren, (ii) vorhandene Artefakte automatisch zu analysieren, um unsere Modelle zu befüllen und (iii) die Konsistenz der Modelle zu überprüfen. Wir werden auf bestehenden Forschungsarbeiten zu Feature-Facets [28], Feature-Identifikation und -Extraktion [1,30,47], Constraint-Extraktion [35,55], und Feature-Modell-Synthese [29,49] zur (halbautomatischen) Extraktion von Variabilitätsinformationen aufbauen und diese anpassen. Wie wir festgestellt haben, ist es in der Industrie üblich, für jeden Kunden spezifische Artefakte zu entwickeln (und dies auch noch "vor Ort"/bei der Inbetriebnahme), daher ist es wichtig, den "Round-Trip" zu unterstützen und zu identifizieren, welche neu entwickelten Artefakte für neue Kunden wiederverwendet werden können und Teil der Platform bzw.…”

Section: Abb 4 Forschungsansatzunclassified

Approaches to mastering variability in software-intensive Cyber-Physical Production Systems

Gutierrez

Sonnleithner

Zoitl

et al. 2021

Elektrotech. Inftech.

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ZusammenfassungSoftware-intensive Cyber-Physische Produktionssysteme (SiCPPS) sind hochkomplexe vernetzte Systeme, die autonom miteinander und mit ihrer Umgebung interagieren, um flexibel eine Vielzahl an Produkten zu produzieren. Solche Systeme haben typischerweise eine lange Lebensdauer, über die eine Vielzahl von Varianten entwickelt und gewartet werden muss. Diese Systeme bestehen aus vielen heterogenen Hard- und Softwarekomponenten, welche auf verschiedene Arten konfiguriert und kombiniert werden können. Variabilität betrifft dabei nicht nur diese Komponenten, sondern auch Entwicklungsprozesse, Anwendungsdomänen sowie Methoden und Werkzeuge. In der Industrie hängt der Umgang mit Variabilität jedoch aktuell stark von Expertenwissen als auch von selbst entwickelten Werkzeugen ab. Diese funktionieren oft nur mit ganz bestimmten Artefakten bzw. Hard- und Softwareplattformen. Existierende Forschungsansätze aus dem Gebiet der SiCPPS beschäftigen sich nicht explizit mit der Beherrschung dieser Variabilität. In diesem Beitrag definieren wir eine Forschungsagenda zur Beherrschung der Variabilität in SiCPPS. Wir konzentrieren uns dabei auf die Entwicklung von Techniken (i) zur Erhebung und Modellierung von Variabilität und (ii) zur Automatisierung sowohl der Generierung von Artefakten in SiCPPS als auch der Generierung und Wartung von Modellen auf Basis bestehender Artefakte.

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“…The exact specifications with grammars can be found online [1]. For illustration, our running example is Bitcoin-Wallet, an Android app we annotated before [9].…”

Section: Embedded Annotationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Common Notation and Tool Support for Embedded Feature Annotations

Schwarz

Mahmood

Berger

2020

Proceedings of the 24th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume B

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Features are typically used to describe the functionalities of software systems. They help understanding systems as well as planning their evolution and managing systems. Especially agile methods foster their use. However, to use features, their locations need to be known. When not documented, they are easily forgotten and then need to be recovered, which is costly. While automated featurelocation techniques exist, they are not usable in practice given their inaccuracies. We take a different route and advocate to record locations early using a lightweight annotation system, where feature information is embedded in software assets. However, given the potential design space of annotations, a unified notation and tool support is needed. Extending our prior work, we present a unified, concise notation for embedded annotations, which we implemented in FAXE, a library for parsing and retrieving such annotations, useable in third-party tooling. We demonstrate its use, especially for an advanced use case of feature-oriented isolated development by automating partial commits. CCS CONCEPTS • Software and its engineering → Software product lines; Traceability.

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Where is my feature and what is it about? A case study on recovering feature facets

Cited by 50 publications

References 13 publications

Visualization of Object-Oriented Variability Implementations as Cities

Visualization of Object-Oriented Variability Implementations as Cities

Approaches to mastering variability in software-intensive Cyber-Physical Production Systems

A Common Notation and Tool Support for Embedded Feature Annotations

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