A heuristic-based approach to code-smell detection

Encapsulation and data hiding are central tenets of the object oriented paradigm. Deciding what data and behaviour to form into a class and where to draw the line between its public and private details can make the difference between a class that is an understandable, flexible and reusable abstraction and one which is not. This decision is a difficult one and may easily result in poor encapsulation which can then have serious implications for a number of system qualities. It is often hard to identify such encapsulation problems within large software systems until they cause a maintenance problem (which is usually too late) and attempting to perform such analysis manually can also be tedious and error prone. Two of the common encapsulation problems that can arise as a consequence of this decomposition process are data classes and god classes. Typically, these two problems occur together – data classes are lacking in functionality that has typically been sucked into an over-complicated and domineering god class. This paper describes the architecture of a tool which automatically detects data and god classes that has been developed as a plug-in for the Eclipse IDE. The technique has been evaluated in a controlled study on two large open source systems which compare the tool results to similar work by Marinescu, who employs a metrics-based approach to detecting such features. The study provides some valuable insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the two approache

Evolving models in Model-Driven Engineering : State-of-the-art and future challenges

The artefacts used in Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) evolve as a matter of course: models are modified and updated as part of the engineering process; metamodels change as a result of domain analysis and standardisation efforts; and the operations applied to models change as engineering requirements change. MDE artefacts are inter-related, and simultaneously constrain each other, making evolution a challenge to manage. We discuss some of the key problems of evolution in MDE, summarise the key state-of-the-art, and look forward to new challenges in research in this area

Flexible Views for View-based Model-driven Development

Modern software development faces the problem of fragmentation of information across heterogeneous artefacts in different modelling and programming languages. In this dissertation, the Vitruvius approach for view-based engineering is presented. Flexible views offer a compact definition of user-specific views on software systems, and can be defined the novel ModelJoin language. The process is supported by a change metamodel for metamodel evolution and change impact analysis

A Functional, Comprehensive and Extensible Multi-Platform Querying and Transformation Approach

This thesis is about a new model querying and transformation approach called FunnyQT which is realized as a set of APIs and embedded domain-specific languages (DSLs) in the JVM-based functional Lisp-dialect Clojure. Founded on a powerful model management API, FunnyQT provides querying services such as comprehensions, quantified expressions, regular path expressions, logic-based, relational model querying, and pattern matching. On the transformation side, it supports the definition of unidirectional model-to-model transformations, of in-place transformations, it supports defining bidirectional transformations, and it supports a new kind of co-evolution transformations that allow for evolving a model together with its metamodel simultaneously. Several properties make FunnyQT unique. Foremost, it is just a Clojure library, thus, FunnyQT queries and transformations are Clojure programs. However, most higher-level services are provided as task-oriented embedded DSLs which use Clojure's powerful macro-system to support the user with tailor-made language constructs important for the task at hand. Since queries and transformations are just Clojure programs, they may use any Clojure or Java library for their own purpose, e.g., they may use some templating library for defining model-to-text transformations. Conversely, like every Clojure program, FunnyQT queries and transformations compile to normal JVM byte-code and can easily be called from other JVM languages. Furthermore, FunnyQT is platform-independent and designed with extensibility in mind. By default, it supports the Eclipse Modeling Framework and JGraLab, and support for other modeling frameworks can be added with minimal effort and without having to modify the respective framework's classes or FunnyQT itself. Lastly, because FunnyQT is embedded in a functional language, it has a functional emphasis itself. Every query and every transformation compiles to a function which can be passed around, given to higher-order functions, or be parametrized with other functions

Model Transformation Languages with Modular Information Hiding

Model transformations, together with models, form the principal artifacts in model-driven software development. Industrial practitioners report that transformations on larger models quickly get sufficiently large and complex themselves. To alleviate entailed maintenance efforts, this thesis presents a modularity concept with explicit interfaces, complemented by software visualization and clustering techniques. All three approaches are tailored to the specific needs of the transformation domain

Model Transformation Languages with Modular Information Hiding

Model transformations, together with models, form the principal artifacts in model-driven software development. Industrial practitioners report that transformations on larger models quickly get sufficiently large and complex themselves. To alleviate entailed maintenance efforts, this thesis presents a modularity concept with explicit interfaces, complemented by software visualization and clustering techniques. All three approaches are tailored to the specific needs of the transformation domain

Fujaba days 2009 : proceedings of the 7th international Fujaba days, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, November 16-17, 2009

Fujaba is an Open Source UML CASE tool project started at the software engineering group of Paderborn University in 1997. In 2002 Fujaba has been redesigned and became the Fujaba Tool Suite with a plug-in architecture allowing developers to add functionality easily while retaining full control over their contributions. Multiple Application Domains Fujaba followed the model-driven development philosophy right from its beginning in 1997. At the early days, Fujaba had a special focus on code generation from UML diagrams resulting in a visual programming language with a special emphasis on object structure manipulating rules. Today, at least six rather independent tool versions are under development in Paderborn, Kassel, and Darmstadt for supporting (1) reengineering, (2) embedded real-time systems, (3) education, (4) specification of distributed control systems, (5) integration with the ECLIPSE platform, and (6) MOF-based integration of system (re-) engineering tools. International Community According to our knowledge, quite a number of research groups have also chosen Fujaba as a platform for UML and MDA related research activities. In addition, quite a number of Fujaba users send requests for more functionality and extensions. Therefore, the 7th International Fujaba Days aimed at bringing together Fujaba developers and Fujaba users from all over the world to present their ideas and projects and to discuss them with each other and with the Fujaba core development team