Aspectualizing Legacy Software

Project summary

Aspect-based refactoring, called aspectualization, involves moving program code that implements cross-cutting concerns into aspects. Such refactoring can improve the maintainability of legacy systems. Long compilation and weave times, and the lack of an appropriate testing methodology %for aspect-oriented software are are two challenges to the aspectualization of large legacy systems. We propose an iterative test driven approach for creating and introducing aspects. The approach uses mock systems that enable aspect developers to quickly experiment with different pointcuts and advice, and reduce the compile and weave times. The approach also uses weave analysis, regression testing, and code coverage analysis to test the aspects. We developed several tools for unit and integration testing. We demonstrate the test driven approach in the context of large industrial C++ systems, and we provide guidelines for mock system creation.

Student

• Michael Mortensen

  Dissertation topic: Enhancing the use of Object-Oriented Frameworks through Aspect Libraries AOSD 2006 Poster (PPT)

Collaborators

• James M. Bieman

Publications

• Michael Mortensen, Sudipto Ghosh, and James Bieman. A Test Driven Approach for Aspectualizing Legacy Software Using Mock Systems, accepted to the Journal of Information and Software Technology, 2007.
• Michael Mortensen and Sudipto Ghosh. Refactoring Idiomatic Exception Handling in C++: Throwing and Catching Exceptions with Aspects, International Conference on Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD) Industry Track Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, March 12-16, 2007. PDF Preprint
• Michael Mortensen, Sudipto Ghosh, and James Bieman. Testing During Refactoring: Adding Aspects to Legacy Systems, 17th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE), Raliegh, NC, November 2006. PDF Preprint
• Michael Mortensen and Sudipto Ghosh. Using Aspects with Object-Oriented Frameworks, International Conference on Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD) Industry Track Bonn, Germany, March 20-24, 2006. PDF Preprint PPT
• Michael Mortensen and Sudipto Ghosh. Creating Pluggable and Reusable Non-functional Aspects in AspectC++, Fifth AOSD Workshop on ACP4IS, Bonn, Germany, March 21, 2006. PDF Preprint

Useful links

• Aspect-oriented programming (AOP)
• AspectC++ with C++ VLSI CAD frameworks
• AspectC++
• The OpenAccess object-oriented C++ framework for EDA (VLSI CAD) application development and integration