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58\newcommand\todoin[2][]{\todo[inline, caption={2do}, #1]{
59\begin{minipage}{\textwidth-4pt}#2\end{minipage}}}
60
7c28933b 61\title{Refactoring}
aa1e3779 62\subtitle{An essay}
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63\author{Erlend Kristiansen}
64
65\bibliography{bibliography/master-thesis-erlenkr-bibliography}
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9ff90080 115\begin{document}
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9ff90080 117\frontmatter{}
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118
119
120\chapter*{Abstract}
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121\todoin{\textbf{Remove all todos (including list) before delivery/printing!!!
122Can be done by removing ``draft'' from documentclass.}}
889ba93e 123\todoin{Write abstract}
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124
125\tableofcontents{}
126\listoffigures{}
127\listoftables{}
128
129\chapter*{Preface}
130
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131The discussions in this report must be seen in the context of object oriented
132programming languages, and Java in particular, since that is the language in
133which most of the examples will be given. All though the techniques discussed
134may be applicable to languages from other paradigms, they will not be the
135subject of this report.
f3a108c3 136
055dca93 137\mainmatter
00aa0588 138
740e1b6c 139\chapter{What is Refactoring?}
7c28933b 140
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141This question is best answered by first defining the concept of a
142\emph{refactoring}, what it is to \emph{refactor}, and then discuss what aspects
a1bafe90 143of programming make people want to refactor their code.
00aa0588 144
740e1b6c 145\section{Defining refactoring}
a1bafe90 146Martin Fowler, in his classic book on refactoring\citing{refactoring}, defines a
00aa0588 147refactoring like this:
ee45c41f 148
00aa0588 149\begin{quote}
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150 \emph{Refactoring} (noun): a change made to the internal
151 structure\footnote{The structure observable by the programmer.} of software to
152 make it easier to understand and cheaper to modify without changing its
153 observable behavior.~\cite[p.~53]{refactoring}
00aa0588 154\end{quote}
ee45c41f 155
a1bafe90 156\noindent This definition assigns additional meaning to the word
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157\emph{refactoring}, beyond the composition of the prefix \emph{re-}, usually
158meaning something like ``again'' or ``anew'', and the word \emph{factoring},
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159that can mean to isolate the \emph{factors} of something. Here a \emph{factor}
160would be close to the mathematical definition of something that divides a
161quantity, without leaving a remainder. Fowler is mixing the \emph{motivation}
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162behind refactoring into his definition. Instead it could be more refined, formed
163to only consider the \emph{mechanical} and \emph{behavioral} aspects of
164refactoring. That is to factor the program again, putting it together in a
165different way than before, while preserving the behavior of the program. An
166alternative definition could then be:
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167
168\definition{A \emph{refactoring} is a transformation
8fae7b44 169done to a program without altering its external behavior.}
00aa0588 170
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171From this we can conclude that a refactoring primarily changes how the
172\emph{code} of a program is perceived by the \emph{programmer}, and not the
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173\emph{behavior} experienced by any user of the program. Although the logical
174meaning is preserved, such changes could potentially alter the program's
175behavior when it comes to performance gain or -penalties. So any logic depending
176on the performance of a program could make the program behave differently after
177a refactoring.
00aa0588 178
137e0e7b 179In the extreme case one could argue that such a thing as \emph{software
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180obfuscation} is refactoring. Software obfuscation is to make source code harder
181to read and analyze, while preserving its semantics. It could be done composing
182many, more or less randomly chosen, refactorings. Then the question arise
183whether it can be called a \emph{composite refactoring}
184\see{compositeRefactorings} or not? The answer is not obvious. First, there is
185no way to describe \emph{the} mechanics of software obfuscation, beacause there
186are infinitely many ways to do that. Second, \emph{obfuscation} can be thought
187of as \emph{one operation}: Either the code is obfuscated, or it is not. Third,
188it makes no sense to call software obfuscation \emph{a} refactoring, since it
189holds different meaning to different people. The last point is important, since
190one of the motivations behind defining different refactorings is to build up a
191vocabulary for software professionals to reason and discuss about programs,
192similar to the motivation behind design patterns\citing{designPatterns}. So for
193describing \emph{software obfuscation}, it might be more appropriate to define
194what you do when performing it rather than precisely defining its mechanics in
195terms of other refactorings.
00aa0588 196
740e1b6c 197\section{The etymology of 'refactoring'}
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198It is a little difficult to pinpoint the exact origin of the word
199``refactoring'', as it seems to have evolved as part of a colloquial
200terminology, more than a scientific term. There is no authoritative source for a
201formal definition of it.
202
b5c7bb1b 203According to Martin Fowler\citing{etymology-refactoring}, there may also be more
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204than one origin of the word. The most well-known source, when it comes to the
205origin of \emph{refactoring}, is the Smalltalk\footnote{\emph{Smalltalk},
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206object-oriented, dynamically typed, reflective programming language. See
207\url{http://www.smalltalk.org}} community and their infamous \emph{Refactoring
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208Browser}\footnote{\url{http://st-www.cs.illinois.edu/users/brant/Refactory/RefactoringBrowser.html}}
209described in the article \emph{A Refactoring Tool for
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210Smalltalk}\citing{refactoringBrowser1997}, published in 1997.
211Allegedly\citing{etymology-refactoring}, the metaphor of factoring programs was
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212also present in the Forth\footnote{\emph{Forth} -- stack-based, extensible
213programming language, without type-checking. See \url{http://www.forth.org}}
214community, and the word ``refactoring'' is mentioned in a book by Leo Brodie,
b5c7bb1b 215called \emph{Thinking Forth}\citing{brodie1984}, first published in
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2161984\footnote{\emph{Thinking Forth} was first published in 1984 by the
217\emph{Forth Interest Group}. Then it was reprinted in 1994 with minor
218typographical corrections, before it was transcribed into an electronic edition
219typeset in \LaTeX\ and published under a Creative Commons licence in 2004. The
220edition cited here is the 2004 edition, but the content should essentially be as
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221in 1984.}. The exact word is only printed one place~\cite[p.~232]{brodie1984},
222but the term \emph{factoring} is prominent in the book, that also contains a
223whole chapter dedicated to (re)factoring, and how to keep the (Forth) code clean
224and maintainable.
ee45c41f 225
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226\begin{quote}
227 \ldots good factoring technique is perhaps the most important skill for a
4cb06723 228 Forth programmer.~\cite[p.~172]{brodie1984}
f3a108c3 229\end{quote}
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230
231\noindent Brodie also express what \emph{factoring} means to him:
232
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233\begin{quote}
234 Factoring means organizing code into useful fragments. To make a fragment
235 useful, you often must separate reusable parts from non-reusable parts. The
236 reusable parts become new definitions. The non-reusable parts become arguments
4cb06723 237 or parameters to the definitions.~\cite[p.~172]{brodie1984}
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238\end{quote}
239
240Fowler claims that the usage of the word \emph{refactoring} did not pass between
241the \emph{Forth} and \emph{Smalltalk} communities, but that it emerged
242independently in each of the communities.
243
740e1b6c 244\section{Motivation -- Why people refactor}
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245There are many reasons why people want to refactor their programs. They can for
246instance do it to remove duplication, break up long methods or to introduce
247design patterns\citing{designPatterns} into their software systems. The shared
248trait for all these are that peoples intentions are to make their programs
249\emph{better}, in some sense. But what aspects of their programs are becoming
250improved?
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251
252As already mentioned, people often refactor to get rid of duplication. Moving
a1bafe90 253identical or similar code into methods, and maybe pushing methods up or down in
740e1b6c 254their class hierarchies. Making template methods for overlapping
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255algorithms/functionality and so on. It is all about gathering what belongs
256together and putting it all in one place. The resulting code is then easier to
257maintain. When removing the implicit coupling\footnote{When duplicating code,
258the code might not be coupled in other ways than that it is supposed to
259represent the same functionality. So if this functionality is going to change,
260it might need to change in more than one place, thus creating an implicit
261coupling between the multiple pieces of code.} between code snippets, the
137e0e7b 262location of a bug is limited to only one place, and new functionality need only
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263to be added to this one place, instead of a number of places people might not
264even remember.
265
266A problem you often encounter when programming, is that a program contains a lot
267of long and hard-to-grasp methods. It can then help to break the methods into
268smaller ones, using the \ExtractMethod refactoring\citing{refactoring}. Then you
269may discover something about a program that you were not aware of before;
270revealing bugs you did not know about or could not find due to the complex
271structure of your program. \todo{Proof?} Making the methods smaller and giving
272good names to the new ones clarifies the algorithms and enhances the
273\emph{understandability} of the program \see{magic_number_seven}. This makes
274refactoring an excellent method for exploring unknown program code, or code that
275you had forgotten that you wrote.
276
277Most primitive refactorings are simple. Their true power is first revealed when
278they are combined into larger --- higher level --- refactorings, called
279\emph{composite refactorings} \see{compositeRefactorings}. Often the goal of
280such a series of refactorings is a design pattern. Thus the \emph{design} can be
281evolved throughout the lifetime of a program, as opposed to designing up-front.
282It is all about being structured and taking small steps to improve a program's
283design.
284
285Many software design pattern are aimed at lowering the coupling between
286different classes and different layers of logic. One of the most famous is
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287perhaps the \emph{Model-View-Controller}\citing{designPatterns} pattern. It is
288aimed at lowering the coupling between the user interface and the business logic
289and data representation of a program. This also has the added benefit that the
290business logic could much easier be the target of automated tests, increasing
291the productivity in the software development process. Refactoring is an
292important tool on the way to something greater.
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293
294Another effect of refactoring is that with the increased separation of concerns
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295coming out of many refactorings, the \emph{performance} can be improved. When
296profiling programs, the problematic parts are narrowed down to smaller parts of
297the code, which are easier to tune, and optimization can be performed only where
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298needed and in a more effective way.
299
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300Last, but not least, and this should probably be the best reason to refactor, is
301to refactor to \emph{facilitate a program change}. If one has managed to keep
302one's code clean and tidy, and the code is not bloated with design patterns that
a1bafe90 303are not ever going to be needed, then some refactoring might be needed to
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304introduce a design pattern that is appropriate for the change that is going to
305happen.
306
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307Refactoring program code --- with a goal in mind --- can give the code itself
308more value. That is in the form of robustness to bugs, understandability and
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309maintainability. Having robust code is an obvious advantage, but
310understandability and maintainability are both very important aspects of
311software development. By incorporating refactoring in the development process,
312bugs are found faster, new functionality is added more easily and code is easier
313to understand by the next person exposed to it, which might as well be the
314person who wrote it. The consequence of this, is that refactoring can increase
315the average productivity of the development process, and thus also add to the
316monetary value of a business in the long run. The perspective on productivity
317and money should also be able to open the eyes of the many nearsighted managers
318that seldom see beyond the next milestone.
137e0e7b 319
b01d328a 320\section{The magical number seven}\label{magic_number_seven}
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321The article \emph{The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on
322our capacity for processing information}\citing{miller1956} by George A.
323Miller, was published in the journal \emph{Psychological Review} in 1956. It
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324presents evidence that support that the capacity of the number of objects a
325human being can hold in its working memory is roughly seven, plus or minus two
326objects. This number varies a bit depending on the nature and complexity of the
327objects, but is according to Miller ``\ldots never changing so much as to be
328unrecognizable.''
329
330Miller's article culminates in the section called \emph{Recoding}, a term he
331borrows from communication theory. The central result in this section is that by
332recoding information, the capacity of the amount of information that a human can
333process at a time is increased. By \emph{recoding}, Miller means to group
334objects together in chunks and give each chunk a new name that it can be
335remembered by. By organizing objects into patterns of ever growing depth, one
336can memorize and process a much larger amount of data than if it were to be
337represented as its basic pieces. This grouping and renaming is analogous to how
338many refactorings work, by grouping pieces of code and give them a new name.
a1bafe90 339Examples are the fundamental \ExtractMethod and \refactoring{Extract Class}
b5c7bb1b 340refactorings\citing{refactoring}.
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341
342\begin{quote}
343 \ldots recoding is an extremely powerful weapon for increasing the amount of
4cb06723 344 information that we can deal with.~\cite[p.~95]{miller1956}
f4cea2d6 345\end{quote}
ee45c41f 346
a1bafe90 347An example from the article addresses the problem of memorizing a sequence of
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348binary digits. Let us say we have the following sequence\footnote{The example
349 presented here is slightly modified (and shortened) from what is presented in
b5c7bb1b 350 the original article\citing{miller1956}, but it is essentially the same.} of
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35116 binary digits: ``1010001001110011''. Most of us will have a hard time
352memorizing this sequence by only reading it once or twice. Imagine if we instead
353translate it to this sequence: ``A273''. If you have a background from computer
354science, it will be obvious that the latest sequence is the first sequence
355recoded to be represented by digits with base 16. Most people should be able to
356memorize this last sequence by only looking at it once.
357
358Another result from the Miller article is that when the amount of information a
359human must interpret increases, it is crucial that the translation from one code
360to another must be almost automatic for the subject to be able to remember the
0d7fbd88 361translation, before \heshe is presented with new information to recode. Thus
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362learning and understanding how to best organize certain kinds of data is
363essential to efficiently handle that kind of data in the future. This is much
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364like when humans learn to read. First they must learn how to recognize letters.
365Then they can learn distinct words, and later read sequences of words that form
366whole sentences. Eventually, most of them will be able to read whole books and
367briefly retell the important parts of its content. This suggest that the use of
368design patterns\citing{designPatterns} is a good idea when reasoning about
369computer programs. With extensive use of design patterns when creating complex
370program structures, one does not always have to read whole classes of code to
371comprehend how they function, it may be sufficient to only see the name of a
372class to almost fully understand its responsibilities.
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373
374\begin{quote}
375 Our language is tremendously useful for repackaging material into a few chunks
4cb06723 376 rich in information.~\cite[p.~95]{miller1956}
f4cea2d6 377\end{quote}
ee45c41f 378
a1bafe90 379Without further evidence, these results at least indicate that refactoring
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380source code into smaller units with higher cohesion and, when needed,
381introducing appropriate design patterns, should aid in the cause of creating
382computer programs that are easier to maintain and has code that is easier (and
383better) understood.
384
740e1b6c 385\section{Notable contributions to the refactoring literature}
4e135659 386\todoin{Update with more contributions}
36d99783 387
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388\begin{description}
389 \item[1992] William F. Opdyke submits his doctoral dissertation called
b5c7bb1b 390 \emph{Refactoring Object-Oriented Frameworks}\citing{opdyke1992}. This
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391 work defines a set of refactorings, that are behavior preserving given that
392 their preconditions are met. The dissertation is focused on the automation
393 of refactorings.
394 \item[1999] Martin Fowler et al.: \emph{Refactoring: Improving the Design of
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395 Existing Code}\citing{refactoring}. This is maybe the most influential text
396 on refactoring. It bares similarities with Opdykes thesis\citing{opdyke1992}
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397 in the way that it provides a catalog of refactorings. But Fowler's book is
398 more about the craft of refactoring, as he focuses on establishing a
399 vocabulary for refactoring, together with the mechanics of different
400 refactorings and when to perform them. His methodology is also founded on
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401 the principles of test-driven development.
402 \item[2005] Joshua Kerievsky: \emph{Refactoring to
403 Patterns}\citing{kerievsky2005}. This book is heavily influenced by Fowler's
a1bafe90 404 \emph{Refactoring}\citing{refactoring} and the ``Gang of Four'' \emph{Design
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405 Patterns}\citing{designPatterns}. It is building on the refactoring
406 catalogue from Fowler's book, but is trying to bridge the gap between
407 \emph{refactoring} and \emph{design patterns} by providing a series of
408 higher-level composite refactorings, that makes code evolve toward or away
409 from certain design patterns. The book is trying to build up the readers
410 intuition around \emph{why} one would want to use a particular design
411 pattern, and not just \emph{how}. The book is encouraging evolutionary
412 design. \See{relationToDesignPatterns}
d21ef41f 413\end{description}
3b7c1d90 414
110dae91 415\section{Tool support (for Java)}\label{toolSupport}
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416This section will briefly compare the refatoring support of the three IDEs
417\emph{Eclipse}\footnote{\url{http://www.eclipse.org/}}, \emph{IntelliJ
418IDEA}\footnote{The IDE under comparison is the \emph{Community Edition},
419\url{http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/}} and
420\emph{NetBeans}\footnote{\url{https://netbeans.org/}}. These are the most
421popular Java IDEs\citing{javaReport2011}.
422
423All three IDEs provide support for the most useful refactorings, like the
424different extract, move and rename refactorings. In fact, Java-targeted IDEs are
425known for their good refactoring support, so this did not appear as a big
426surprise.
427
428The IDEs seem to have excellent support for the \ExtractMethod refactoring, so
429at least they have all passed the first refactoring
430rubicon\citing{fowlerRubicon2001,secondRubicon2012}.
431
432Regarding the \MoveMethod refactoring, the \emph{Eclipse} and \emph{IntelliJ}
433IDEs do the job in very similar manners. In most situations they both do a
434satisfying job by producing the expected outcome. But they do nothing to check
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435that the result does not break the semantics of the program \see{correctness}.
436The \emph{NetBeans} IDE implements this refactoring in a somewhat
437unsophisticated way. For starters, its default destination for the move is
438itself, although it refuses to perform the refactoring if chosen. But the worst
347ed677 439part is, that if moving the method \method{f} of the class \type{C} to the class
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440\type{X}, it will break the code. The result is shown in
441\myref{lst:moveMethod_NetBeans}.
4e135659 442
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443\begin{listing}
444\begin{multicols}{2}
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445\begin{minted}[samepage]{java}
446public class C {
447 private X x;
448 ...
449 public void f() {
450 x.m();
451 x.n();
452 }
453}
454\end{minted}
455
347ed677 456\columnbreak
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457
458\begin{minted}[samepage]{java}
459public class X {
460 ...
461 public void f(C c) {
462 c.x.m();
463 c.x.n();
464 }
465}
466\end{minted}
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467\end{multicols}
468\caption{Moving method \method{f} from \type{C} to \type{X}.}
469\label{lst:moveMethod_NetBeans}
470\end{listing}
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471
472NetBeans will try to make code that call the methods \method{m} and \method{n}
473of \type{X} by accessing them through \var{c.x}, where \var{c} is a parameter of
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474type \type{C} that is added the method \method{f} when it is moved. (This is
475seldom the desired outcome of this refactoring, but ironically, this ``feature''
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476keeps NetBeans from breaking the code in the example from \myref{correctness}.)
477If \var{c.x} for some reason is inaccessible to \type{X}, as in this case, the
478refactoring breaks the code, and it will not compile. NetBeans presents a
479preview of the refactoring outcome, but the preview does not catch it if the IDE
480is about break the program.
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481
482The IDEs under investigation seems to have fairly good support for primitive
483refactorings, but what about more complex ones, such as the \refactoring{Extract
484Class}\citing{refactoring}? The \refactoring{Extract Class} refactoring works by
485creating a class, for then to move members to that class and access them from
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486the old class via a reference to the new class. \emph{IntelliJ} handles this in
487a fairly good manner, although, in the case of private methods, it leaves unused
488methods behind. These are methods that delegate to a field with the type of the
4778044b 489new class, but are not used anywhere. \emph{Eclipse} has added (or withdrawn)
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490its own quirk to the Extract Class refactoring, and only allows for
491\emph{fields} to be moved to a new class, \emph{not methods}. This makes it
492effectively only extracting a data structure, and calling it
493\refactoring{Extract Class} is a little misleading. One would often be better
494off with textual extract and paste than using the Extract Class refactoring in
495Eclipse. When it comes to \emph{NetBeans}, it does not even seem to have made an
496attempt on providing this refactoring. (Well, it probably has, but it does not
497show in the IDE.)
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498
499\todoin{Visual Studio (C++/C\#), Smalltalk refactoring browser?,
4e135659 500second refactoring rubicon?}
3b7c1d90 501
36d99783 502\section{The relation to design patterns}\label{relationToDesignPatterns}
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503
504\emph{Refactoring} and \emph{design patterns} have at least one thing in common,
505they are both promoted by advocates of \emph{clean code}\citing{cleanCode} as
506fundamental tools on the road to more maintanable and extendable source code.
507
508\begin{quote}
509 Design patterns help you determine how to reorganize a design, and they can
510 reduce the amount of refactoring you need to do
511 later.~\cite[p.~353]{designPatterns}
512\end{quote}
513
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514Although sometimes associated with
515over-engineering\citing{kerievsky2005,refactoring}, design patterns are in
516general assumed to be good for maintainability of source code. That may be
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517because many of them are designed to support the \emph{open/closed principle} of
518object-oriented programming. The principle was first formulated by Bertrand
519Meyer, the creator of the Eiffel programming language, like this: ``Modules
520should be both open and closed.''\citing{meyer1988} It has been popularized,
521with this as a common version:
522
523\begin{quote}
524 Software entities (classes, modules, functions, etc.) should be open for
525 extension, but closed for modification.\footnote{See
526 \url{http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?OpenClosedPrinciple} or
527 \url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open/closed_principle}}
528\end{quote}
529
530Maintainability is often thought of as the ability to be able to introduce new
a1bafe90 531functionality without having to change too much of the old code. When
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532refactoring, the motivation is often to facilitate adding new functionality. It
533is about factoring the old code in a way that makes the new functionality being
534able to benefit from the functionality already residing in a software system,
535without having to copy old code into new. Then, next time someone shall add new
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536functionality, it is less likely that the old code has to change. Assuming that
537a design pattern is the best way to get rid of duplication and assist in
538implementing new functionality, it is reasonable to conclude that a design
539pattern often is the target of a series of refactorings. Having a repertoire of
540design patterns can also help in knowing when and how to refactor a program to
541make it reflect certain desired characteristics.
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542
543\begin{quote}
a1bafe90 544 There is a natural relation between patterns and refactorings. Patterns are
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545 where you want to be; refactorings are ways to get there from somewhere
546 else.~\cite[p.~107]{refactoring}
547\end{quote}
548
549This quote is wise in many contexts, but it is not always appropriate to say
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550``Patterns are where you want to be\ldots''. \emph{Sometimes}, patterns are
551where you want to be, but only because it will benefit your design. It is not
552true that one should always try to incorporate as many design patterns as
553possible into a program. It is not like they have intrinsic value. They only add
554value to a system when they support its design. Otherwise, the use of design
555patterns may only lead to a program that is more complex than necessary.
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556
557\begin{quote}
558 The overuse of patterns tends to result from being patterns happy. We are
559 \emph{patterns happy} when we become so enamored of patterns that we simply
560 must use them in our code.~\cite[p.~24]{kerievsky2005}
561\end{quote}
562
563This can easily happen when relying largely on up-front design. Then it is
564natural, in the very beginning, to try to build in all the flexibility that one
565believes will be necessary throughout the lifetime of a software system.
566According to Joshua Kerievsky ``That sounds reasonable --- if you happen to be
567psychic.''~\cite[p.~1]{kerievsky2005} He is advocating what he believes is a
568better approach: To let software continually evolve. To start with a simple
569design that meets today's needs, and tackle future needs by refactoring to
570satisfy them. He believes that this is a more economic approach than investing
571time and money into a design that inevitably is going to change. By relying on
572continuously refactoring a system, its design can be made simpler without
573sacrificing flexibility. To be able to fully rely on this approach, it is of
574utter importance to have a reliable suit of tests to lean on. \See{testing} This
575makes the design process more natural and less characterized by difficult
576decisions that has to be made before proceeding in the process, and that is
577going to define a project for all of its unforeseeable future.
578
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579\begin{comment}
580
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581\section{Classification of refactorings}
582% only interesting refactorings
583% with 2 detailed examples? One for structured and one for intra-method?
584% Is replacing Bubblesort with Quick Sort considered a refactoring?
585
586\subsection{Structural refactorings}
587
f65da046 588\subsubsection{Primitive refactorings}
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589
590% Composing Methods
591\explanation{Extract Method}{You have a code fragment that can be grouped
592together.}{Turn the fragment into a method whose name explains the purpose of
593the method.}
594
595\explanation{Inline Method}{A method's body is just as clear as its name.}{Put
596the method's body into the body of its callers and remove the method.}
597
598\explanation{Inline Temp}{You have a temp that is assigned to once with a simple
599expression, and the temp is getting in the way of other refactorings.}{Replace
600all references to that temp with the expression}
601
602% Moving Features Between Objects
603\explanation{Move Method}{A method is, or will be, using or used by more
604features of another class than the class on which it is defined.}{Create a new
605method with a similar body in the class it uses most. Either turn the old method
606into a simple delegation, or remove it altogether.}
607
608\explanation{Move Field}{A field is, or will be, used by another class more than
609the class on which it is defined}{Create a new field in the target class, and
610change all its users.}
611
612% Organizing Data
613\explanation{Replace Magic Number with Symbolic Constant}{You have a literal
614number with a particular meaning.}{Create a constant, name it after the meaning,
615and replace the number with it.}
616
617\explanation{Encapsulate Field}{There is a public field.}{Make it private and
618provide accessors.}
619
620\explanation{Replace Type Code with Class}{A class has a numeric type code that
8fae7b44 621does not affect its behavior.}{Replace the number with a new class.}
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622
623\explanation{Replace Type Code with Subclasses}{You have an immutable type code
8fae7b44 624that affects the behavior of a class.}{Replace the type code with subclasses.}
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625
626\explanation{Replace Type Code with State/Strategy}{You have a type code that
8fae7b44 627affects the behavior of a class, but you cannot use subclassing.}{Replace the
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628type code with a state object.}
629
630% Simplifying Conditional Expressions
631\explanation{Consolidate Duplicate Conditional Fragments}{The same fragment of
8fae7b44 632code is in all branches of a conditional expression.}{Move it outside of the
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633expression.}
634
635\explanation{Remove Control Flag}{You have a variable that is acting as a
636control flag fro a series of boolean expressions.}{Use a break or return
637instead.}
638
639\explanation{Replace Nested Conditional with Guard Clauses}{A method has
8fae7b44 640conditional behavior that does not make clear the normal path of
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641execution.}{Use guard clauses for all special cases.}
642
8fae7b44 643\explanation{Introduce Null Object}{You have repeated checks for a null
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644value.}{Replace the null value with a null object.}
645
646\explanation{Introduce Assertion}{A section of code assumes something about the
647state of the program.}{Make the assumption explicit with an assertion.}
648
649% Making Method Calls Simpler
650\explanation{Rename Method}{The name of a method does not reveal its
651purpose.}{Change the name of the method}
652
653\explanation{Add Parameter}{A method needs more information from its
654caller.}{Add a parameter for an object that can pass on this information.}
655
656\explanation{Remove Parameter}{A parameter is no longer used by the method
657body.}{Remove it.}
658
659%\explanation{Parameterize Method}{Several methods do similar things but with
660%different values contained in the method.}{Create one method that uses a
661%parameter for the different values.}
662
663\explanation{Preserve Whole Object}{You are getting several values from an
664object and passing these values as parameters in a method call.}{Send the whole
665object instead.}
666
667\explanation{Remove Setting Method}{A field should be set at creation time and
668never altered.}{Remove any setting method for that field.}
669
670\explanation{Hide Method}{A method is not used by any other class.}{Make the
671method private.}
672
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673\explanation{Replace Constructor with Factory Method}{You want to do more than
674simple construction when you create an object}{Replace the constructor with a
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675factory method.}
676
677% Dealing with Generalization
8fae7b44 678\explanation{Pull Up Field}{Two subclasses have the same field.}{Move the field
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679to the superclass.}
680
681\explanation{Pull Up Method}{You have methods with identical results on
682subclasses.}{Move them to the superclass.}
683
8fae7b44 684\explanation{Push Down Method}{Behavior on a superclass is relevant only for
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685some of its subclasses.}{Move it to those subclasses.}
686
687\explanation{Push Down Field}{A field is used only by some subclasses.}{Move the
688field to those subclasses}
689
690\explanation{Extract Interface}{Several clients use the same subset of a class's
8fae7b44 691interface, or two classes have part of their interfaces in common.}{Extract the
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692subset into an interface.}
693
694\explanation{Replace Inheritance with Delegation}{A subclass uses only part of a
695superclasses interface or does not want to inherit data.}{Create a field for the
696superclass, adjust methods to delegate to the superclass, and remove the
697subclassing.}
698
699\explanation{Replace Delegation with Inheritance}{You're using delegation and
700are often writing many simple delegations for the entire interface}{Make the
701delegating class a subclass of the delegate.}
702
703\subsubsection{Composite refactorings}
704
705% Composing Methods
706% \explanation{Replace Method with Method Object}{}{}
707
708% Moving Features Between Objects
709\explanation{Extract Class}{You have one class doing work that should be done by
710two}{Create a new class and move the relevant fields and methods from the old
711class into the new class.}
712
713\explanation{Inline Class}{A class isn't doing very much.}{Move all its features
714into another class and delete it.}
715
716\explanation{Hide Delegate}{A client is calling a delegate class of an
717object.}{Create Methods on the server to hide the delegate.}
718
719\explanation{Remove Middle Man}{A class is doing to much simple delegation.}{Get
720the client to call the delegate directly.}
721
722% Organizing Data
723\explanation{Replace Data Value with Object}{You have a data item that needs
8fae7b44 724additional data or behavior.}{Turn the data item into an object.}
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725
726\explanation{Change Value to Reference}{You have a class with many equal
727instances that you want to replace with a single object.}{Turn the object into a
728reference object.}
729
730\explanation{Encapsulate Collection}{A method returns a collection}{Make it
8fae7b44 731return a read-only view and provide add/remove methods.}
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732
733% \explanation{Replace Array with Object}{}{}
734
735\explanation{Replace Subclass with Fields}{You have subclasses that vary only in
736methods that return constant data.}{Change the methods to superclass fields and
737eliminate the subclasses.}
738
739% Simplifying Conditional Expressions
740\explanation{Decompose Conditional}{You have a complicated conditional
741(if-then-else) statement.}{Extract methods from the condition, then part, an
742else part.}
743
744\explanation{Consolidate Conditional Expression}{You have a sequence of
745conditional tests with the same result.}{Combine them into a single conditional
746expression and extract it.}
747
748\explanation{Replace Conditional with Polymorphism}{You have a conditional that
8fae7b44 749chooses different behavior depending on the type of an object.}{Move each leg
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750of the conditional to an overriding method in a subclass. Make the original
751method abstract.}
752
753% Making Method Calls Simpler
754\explanation{Replace Parameter with Method}{An object invokes a method, then
755passes the result as a parameter for a method. The receiver can also invoke this
756method.}{Remove the parameter and let the receiver invoke the method.}
757
758\explanation{Introduce Parameter Object}{You have a group of parameters that
759naturally go together.}{Replace them with an object.}
760
761% Dealing with Generalization
762\explanation{Extract Subclass}{A class has features that are used only in some
763instances.}{Create a subclass for that subset of features.}
764
765\explanation{Extract Superclass}{You have two classes with similar
766features.}{Create a superclass and move the common features to the
767superclass.}
768
769\explanation{Collapse Hierarchy}{A superclass and subclass are not very
770different.}{Merge them together.}
771
772\explanation{Form Template Method}{You have two methods in subclasses that
773perform similar steps in the same order, yet the steps are different.}{Get the
774steps into methods with the same signature, so that the original methods become
775the same. Then you can pull them up.}
776
777
778\subsection{Functional refactorings}
779
780\explanation{Substitute Algorithm}{You want to replace an algorithm with one
781that is clearer.}{Replace the body of the method with the new algorithm.}
00aa0588 782
b289552b 783\end{comment}
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784
785\section{The impact on software quality}
786
a1bafe90 787\subsection{What is software quality?}
00aa0588 788The term \emph{software quality} has many meanings. It all depends on the
9a55a5bc 789context we put it in. If we look at it with the eyes of a software developer, it
a1bafe90 790usually means that the software is easily maintainable and testable, or in other
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791words, that it is \emph{well designed}. This often correlates with the
792management scale, where \emph{keeping the schedule} and \emph{customer
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793satisfaction} is at the center. From the customers point of view, in addition to
794good usability, \emph{performance} and \emph{lack of bugs} is always
795appreciated, measurements that are also shared by the software developer. (In
796addition, such things as good documentation could be measured, but this is out
797of the scope of this document.)
9a55a5bc 798
00aa0588 799\subsection{The impact on performance}
9a55a5bc 800\begin{quote}
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801 Refactoring certainly will make software go more slowly\footnote{With todays
802 compiler optimization techniques and performance tuning of e.g. the Java
803virtual machine, the penalties of object creation and method calls are
804debatable.}, but it also makes the software more amenable to performance
805tuning.~\cite[p.~69]{refactoring}
9a55a5bc 806\end{quote}
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807
808\noindent There is a common belief that refactoring compromises performance, due
809to increased degree of indirection and that polymorphism is slower than
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810conditionals.
811
b5c7bb1b 812In a survey, Demeyer\citing{demeyer2002} disproves this view in the case of
a1bafe90 813polymorphism. He did an experiment on, what he calls, ``Transform Self Type
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814Checks'' where you introduce a new polymorphic method and a new class hierarchy
815to get rid of a class' type checking of a ``type attribute``. He uses this kind
816of transformation to represent other ways of replacing conditionals with
817polymorphism as well. The experiment is performed on the C++ programming
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818language and with three different compilers and platforms. Demeyer concludes
819that, with compiler optimization turned on, polymorphism beats middle to large
820sized if-statements and does as well as case-statements. (In accordance with
821his hypothesis, due to similarities between the way C++ handles polymorphism and
822case-statements.)
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824\begin{quote}
825 The interesting thing about performance is that if you analyze most programs,
b5c7bb1b 826 you find that they waste most of their time in a small fraction of the
4cb06723 827 code.~\cite[p.~70]{refactoring}
9a55a5bc 828\end{quote}
9a55a5bc 829
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830\noindent So, although an increased amount of method calls could potentially
831slow down programs, one should avoid premature optimization and sacrificing good
832design, leaving the performance tuning until after profiling\footnote{For and
833 example of a Java profiler, check out VisualVM:
834 \url{http://visualvm.java.net/}} the software and having isolated the actual
835 problem areas.
00aa0588 836
0d7fbd88 837\section{Composite refactorings}\label{compositeRefactorings}
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838\todo{motivation, examples, manual vs automated?, what about refactoring in a
839very large code base?}
6065c96c 840Generally, when thinking about refactoring, at the mechanical level, there are
f65da046 841essentially two kinds of refactorings. There are the \emph{primitive}
a1bafe90 842refactorings, and the \emph{composite} refactorings.
6065c96c 843
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844\definition{A \emph{primitive refactoring} is a refactoring that cannot be
845expressed in terms of other refactorings.}
f65da046 846
b5c7bb1b 847\noindent Examples are the \refactoring{Pull Up Field} and \refactoring{Pull Up
a1bafe90 848Method} refactorings\citing{refactoring}, that move members up in their class
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849hierarchies.
850
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851\definition{A \emph{composite refactoring} is a refactoring that can be
852expressed in terms of two or more other refactorings.}
f65da046 853
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854\noindent An example of a composite refactoring is the \refactoring{Extract
855Superclass} refactoring\citing{refactoring}. In its simplest form, it is composed
856of the previously described primitive refactorings, in addition to the
857\refactoring{Pull Up Constructor Body} refactoring\citing{refactoring}. It works
858by creating an abstract superclass that the target class(es) inherits from, then
859by applying \refactoring{Pull Up Field}, \refactoring{Pull Up Method} and
860\refactoring{Pull Up Constructor Body} on the members that are to be members of
861the new superclass. For an overview of the \refactoring{Extract Superclass}
8b6b22c8 862refactoring, see \myref{fig:extractSuperclass}.
6065c96c 863
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864\begin{figure}[h]
865 \centering
faa9f4f3 866 \includegraphics[angle=270,width=\linewidth]{extractSuperclassItalic.pdf}
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867 \caption{The Extract Superclass refactoring}
868 \label{fig:extractSuperclass}
869\end{figure}
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870
871\section{Manual vs. automated refactorings}
0d7fbd88 872Refactoring is something every programmer does, even if \heshe does not known
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873the term \emph{refactoring}. Every refinement of source code that does not alter
874the program's behavior is a refactoring. For small refactorings, such as
0d7fbd88 875\ExtractMethod, executing it manually is a manageable task, but is still prone
a1bafe90 876to errors. Getting it right the first time is not easy, considering the method
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877signature and all the other aspects of the refactoring that has to be in place.
878
879Take for instance the renaming of classes, methods and fields. For complex
880programs these refactorings are almost impossible to get right. Attacking them
881with textual search and replace, or even regular expressions, will fall short on
882these tasks. Then it is crucial to have proper tool support that can perform
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883them automatically. Tools that can parse source code and thus have semantic
884knowledge about which occurrences of which names belong to what construct in the
885program. For even trying to perform one of these complex task manually, one
886would have to be very confident on the existing test suite \see{testing}.
00aa0588 887
19c4f27d 888\section{Correctness of refactorings}\label{correctness}
f65da046 889For automated refactorings to be truly useful, they must show a high degree of
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890behavior preservation. This last sentence might seem obvious, but there are
891examples of refactorings in existing tools that break programs. I will now
892present an example of an \ExtractMethod refactoring followed by a \MoveMethod
893refactoring that breaks a program in both the \emph{Eclipse} and \emph{IntelliJ}
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894IDEs\footnote{The NetBeans IDE handles this particular situation without
895 altering ther program's beavior, mainly because its Move Method refactoring
896 implementation is a bit rancid in other ways \see{toolSupport}.}. The
897 following piece of code shows the target for the composed refactoring:
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898
899\begin{minted}[linenos,samepage]{java}
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900public class C {
901 public X x = new X();
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903 public void f() {
904 x.m(this);
905 x.n();
906 }
907}
908\end{minted}
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909
910\noindent The next piece of code shows the destination of the refactoring. Note
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911that the method \method{m(C c)} of class \type{C} assigns to the field \var{x}
912of the argument \var{c} that has type \type{C}:
ee45c41f 913
4e135659 914\begin{minted}[samepage]{java}
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915public class X {
916 public void m(C c) {
917 c.x = new X();
918 }
919 public void n() {}
920}
921\end{minted}
922
923The refactoring sequence works by extracting line 5 and 6 from the original
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924class \type{C} into a method \method{f} with the statements from those lines as
925its method body. The method is then moved to the class \type{X}. The result is
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926shown in the following two pieces of code:
927
4e135659 928\begin{minted}[linenos,samepage]{java}
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929public class C {
930 public X x = new X();
931
932 public void f() {
933 x.f(this);
934 }
935}
936\end{minted}
937
4e135659 938\begin{minted}[linenos,samepage]{java}
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939public class X {
940 public void m(C c) {
941 c.x = new X();
942 }
943 public void n() {}
944 public void f(C c) {
945 m(c);
946 n();
947 }
948}
949\end{minted}
950
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951After the refactoring, the method \method{f} of class \type{C} is calling the
952method \method{f} of class \type{X}, and the program now behaves different than
953before. (See line 5 of the version of class \type{C} after the refactoring.)
954Before the refactoring, the methods \method{m} and \method{n} of class \type{X}
955are called on different object instances (see line 5 and 6 of the original class
956\type{C}). After, they are called on the same object, and the statement on line
9573 of class \type{X} (the version after the refactoring) no longer have any
958 effect in our example.
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960The bug introduced in the previous example is of such a nature\footnote{Caused
961 by aliasing. See \url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliasing_(computing)}}
962 that it is very difficult to spot if the refactored code is not covered by
963 tests. It does not generate compilation errors, and will thus only result in
964 a runtime error or corrupted data, which might be hard to detect.
19c4f27d 965
29f39f29 966\section{Refactoring and the importance of testing}\label{testing}
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967\begin{quote}
968 If you want to refactor, the essential precondition is having solid
969 tests.\citing{refactoring}
970\end{quote}
971
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972When refactoring, there are roughly three classes of errors that can be made.
973The first class of errors are the ones that make the code unable to compile.
974These \emph{compile-time} errors are of the nicer kind. They flash up at the
975moment they are made (at least when using an IDE), and are usually easy to fix.
976The second class are the \emph{runtime} errors. Although they take a bit longer
977to surface, they usually manifest after some time in an illegal argument
978exception, null pointer exception or similar during the program execution.
979These kind of errors are a bit harder to handle, but at least they will show,
980eventually. Then there are the \emph{behavior-changing} errors. These errors are
981of the worst kind. They do not show up during compilation and they do not turn
982on a blinking red light during runtime either. The program can seem to work
983perfectly fine with them in play, but the business logic can be damaged in ways
984that will only show up over time.
985
986For discovering runtime errors and behavior changes when refactoring, it is
987essential to have good test coverage. Testing in this context means writing
988automated tests. Manual testing may have its uses, but when refactoring, it is
989automated unit testing that dominate. For discovering behavior changes it is
990especially important to have tests that cover potential problems, since these
991kind of errors does not reveal themselves.
992
993Unit testing is not a way to \emph{prove} that a program is correct, but it is a
994way to make you confindent that it \emph{probably} works as desired. In the
995context of test driven development (commonly known as TDD), the tests are even a
996way to define how the program is \emph{supposed} to work. It is then, by
997definition, working if the tests are passing.
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998
999If the test coverage for a code base is perfect, then it should, theoretically,
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1000be risk-free to perform refactorings on it. This is why automated tests and
1001refactoring are such a great match.
f65da046 1002
b5d53f51 1003\subsection{Testing the code from correctness section}
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1004The worst thing that can happen when refactoring is to introduce changes to the
1005behavior of a program, as in the example on \myref{correctness}. This example
1006may be trivial, but the essence is clear. The only problem with the example is
1007that it is not clear how to create automated tests for it, without changing it
1008in intrusive ways.
1009
1010Unit tests, as they are known from the different xUnit frameworks around, are
1011only suitable to test the \emph{result} of isolated operations. They can not
1012easily (if at all) observe the \emph{history} of a program.
b5d53f51 1013
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1014
1015\todoin{Write \ldots}
1016
1017Assuming a sequential (non-concurrent) program:
1018
1019\begin{minted}{java}
1020tracematch (C c, X x) {
1021 sym m before:
1022 call(* X.m(C)) && args(c) && cflow(within(C));
1023 sym n before:
1024 call(* X.n()) && target(x) && cflow(within(C));
1025 sym setCx after:
1026 set(C.x) && target(c) && !cflow(m);
1027
1028 m n
1029
1030 { assert x == c.x; }
1031}
1032\end{minted}
1033
1034%\begin{minted}{java}
1035%tracematch (X x1, X x2) {
1036% sym m before:
1037% call(* X.m(C)) && target(x1);
1038% sym n before:
1039% call(* X.n()) && target(x2);
1040% sym setX after:
1041% set(C.x) && !cflow(m) && !cflow(n);
1042%
1043% m n
1044%
1045% { assert x1 != x2; }
1046%}
1047%\end{minted}
1048
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1049\section{The project}
1050The aim of this project will be to investigate the relationship between a
1051composite refactoring composed of the \ExtractMethod and \MoveMethod
1052refactorings, and its impact on one or more software metrics.
1053
1054The composition of \ExtractMethod and \MoveMethod springs naturally out of the
1055need to move procedures closer to the data they manipulate. This composed
1056refactoring is not well described in the literature, but it is implemented in at
1057least one tool called
1058\emph{CodeRush}\footnote{\url{https://help.devexpress.com/\#CodeRush/CustomDocument3519}},
1059that is an extension for \emph{MS Visual
1060Studio}\footnote{\url{http://www.visualstudio.com/}}. In CodeRush it is called
1061\emph{Extract Method to
1062Type}\footnote{\url{https://help.devexpress.com/\#CodeRush/CustomDocument6710}},
1063but I choose to call it \ExtractAndMoveMethod, since I feel it better
1064communicates which primitive refactorings it is composed of.
1065
1066For the metrics, I will at least measure the \emph{Coupling between object
1067classes} (CBO) metric that is described by Chidamber and Kemerer in their
1068article \emph{A Metrics Suite for Object Oriented
1069Design}\citing{metricsSuite1994}.
1070
1071The project will then consist in implementing the \ExtractAndMoveMethod
1072refactoring, as well as executing it over a larger code base. Then the effect of
1073the change must be measured by calculating the chosen software metrics both
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1074before and after the execution. To be able to execute the refactoring
1075automatically I have to make it analyze code to determine the best selections to
1076extract into new methods.
b5d53f51 1077
f65da046 1078\section{Software metrics}
d1adbeef 1079\todoin{Is this the appropriate place to have this section?}
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1080
1081%\part{The project}
1082%\chapter{Planning the project}
1083%\part{Conclusion}
1084%\chapter{Results}
1085
b0e80574 1086
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1087
1088\chapter{\ldots}
4e135659 1089\todoin{write}
3b7c1d90 1090\section{The problem statement}
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1091\section{Choosing the target language}
1092Choosing which programming language to use as the target for manipulation is not
a1bafe90 1093a very difficult task. The language has to be an object-oriented programming
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1094language, and it must have existing tool support for refactoring. The
1095\emph{Java} programming language\footnote{\url{https://www.java.com/}} is the
1096dominating language when it comes to examples in the literature of refactoring,
1097and is thus a natural choice. Java is perhaps, currently the most influential
1098programming language in the world, with its \emph{Java Virtual Machine} that
1099runs on all of the most popular architectures and also supports\footnote{They
1100compile to java bytecode.} dozens of other programming languages, with
1101\emph{Scala}, \emph{Clojure} and \emph{Groovy} as the most prominent ones. Java
1102is currently the language that every other programming language is compared
1103against. It is also the primary language of the author of this thesis.
1104
1105\section{Choosing the tools}
1106When choosing a tool for manipulating Java, there are certain criterias that
1107have to be met. First of all, the tool should have some existing refactoring
1108support that this thesis can build upon. Secondly it should provide some kind of
1109framework for parsing and analyzing Java source code. Third, it should itself be
1110open source. This is both because of the need to be able to browse the code for
1111the existing refactorings that is contained in the tool, and also because open
1112source projects hold value in them selves. Another important aspect to consider
1113is that open source projects of a certain size, usually has large communities of
1114people connected to them, that are commited to answering questions regarding the
1115use and misuse of the products, that to a large degree is made by the cummunity
1116itself.
1117
1118There is a certain class of tools that meet these criterias, namely the class of
1119\emph{IDEs}\footnote{\emph{Integrated Development Environment}}. These are
1120proagrams that is ment to support the whole production cycle of a cumputer
1121program, and the most popular IDEs that support Java, generally have quite good
1122refactoring support.
1123
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1124The main contenders for this thesis is the \emph{Eclipse IDE}, with the
1125\emph{Java development tools} (JDT), the \emph{IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition}
1126and the \emph{NetBeans IDE}. \See{toolSupport} Eclipse and NetBeans are both
1127free, open source and community driven, while the IntelliJ IDEA has an open
1128sourced community edition that is free of charge, but also offer an
1129\emph{Ultimate Edition} with an extended set of features, at additional cost.
1130All three IDEs supports adding plugins to extend their functionality and tools
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1131that can be used to parse and analyze Java source code. But one of the IDEs
1132stand out as a favorite, and that is the \emph{Eclipse IDE}. This is the most
1133popular\citing{javaReport2011} among them and seems to be de facto standard IDE
1134for Java development regardless of platform.
4e135659 1135
3b7c1d90 1136
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1137\chapter{Refactorings in Eclipse JDT: Design, Shortcomings and Wishful
1138Thinking}\label{ch:jdt_refactorings}
1139
1140This chapter will deal with some of the design behind refactoring support in
1141Eclipse, and the JDT in specific. After which it will follow a section about
1142shortcomings of the refactoring API in terms of composition of refactorings. The
1143chapter will be concluded with a section telling some of the ways the
1144implementation of refactorings in the JDT could have worked to facilitate
1145composition of refactorings.
055dca93 1146
b0e80574 1147\section{Design}
f041551b 1148The refactoring world of Eclipse can in general be separated into two parts: The
b289552b 1149language independent part and the part written for a specific programming
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1150language -- the language that is the target of the supported refactorings.
1151\todo{What about the language specific part?}
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1152
1153\subsection{The Language Toolkit}
1154The Language Toolkit, or LTK for short, is the framework that is used to
1155implement refactorings in Eclipse. It is language independent and provides the
1156abstractions of a refactoring and the change it generates, in the form of the
1157classes \typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring}{Refactoring} and
1158\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring}{Change}. (There is also parts of
1159the LTK that is concerned with user interaction, but they will not be discussed
1160here, since they are of little value to us and our use of the framework.)
1161
1162\subsubsection{The Refactoring Class}
1163The abstract class \type{Refactoring} is the core of the LTK framework. Every
1164refactoring that is going to be supported by the LTK have to end up creating an
1165instance of one of its subclasses. The main responsibilities of subclasses of
1166\type{Refactoring} is to implement template methods for condition checking
1167(\methodwithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.Refactoring}{checkInitialConditions}
1168and
1169\methodwithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.Refactoring}{checkFinalConditions}),
1170in addition to the
1171\methodwithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.Refactoring}{createChange}
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1172method that creates and returns an instance of the \type{Change} class.
1173
1174If the refactoring shall support that others participate in it when it is
1175executed, the refactoring has to be a processor-based
1176refactoring\typeref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.participants.ProcessorBasedRefactoring}.
1177It then delegates to its given
1178\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.participants}{RefactoringProcessor}
1179for condition checking and change creation.
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1180
1181\subsubsection{The Change Class}
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1182This class is the base class for objects that is responsible for performing the
1183actual workspace transformations in a refactoring. The main responsibilities for
1184its subclasses is to implement the
1185\methodwithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.Change}{perform} and
1186\methodwithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.Change}{isValid} methods. The
1187\method{isValid} method verifies that the change object is valid and thus can be
1188executed by calling its \method{perform} method. The \method{perform} method
1189performs the desired change and returns an undo change that can be executed to
1190reverse the effect of the transformation done by its originating change object.
1191
61420ef7 1192\subsubsection{Executing a Refactoring}\label{executing_refactoring}
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1193The life cycle of a refactoring generally follows two steps after creation:
1194condition checking and change creation. By letting the refactoring object be
1195handled by a
1196\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring}{CheckConditionsOperation} that
1197in turn is handled by a
1198\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring}{CreateChangeOperation}, it is
1199assured that the change creation process is managed in a proper manner.
1200
1201The actual execution of a change object has to follow a detailed life cycle.
1202This life cycle is honored if the \type{CreateChangeOperation} is handled by a
1203\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring}{PerformChangeOperation}. If also
1204an undo manager\typeref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.IUndoManager} is set
1205for the \type{PerformChangeOperation}, the undo change is added into the undo
1206history.
055dca93 1207
b0e80574 1208\section{Shortcomings}
80663734 1209This section is introduced naturally with a conclusion: The JDT refactoring
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1210implementation does not facilitate composition of refactorings.
1211\todo{refine}This section will try to explain why, and also identify other
1212shortcomings of both the usability and the readability of the JDT refactoring
1213source code.
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1214
1215I will begin at the end and work my way toward the composition part of this
1216section.
1217
5837a41f 1218\subsection{Absence of Generics in Eclipse Source Code}
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1219This section is not only concerning the JDT refactoring API, but also large
1220quantities of the Eclipse source code. The code shows a striking absence of the
1221Java language feature of generics. It is hard to read a class' interface when
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1222methods return objects or takes parameters of raw types such as \type{List} or
1223\type{Map}. This sometimes results in having to read a lot of source code to
1224understand what is going on, instead of relying on the available interfaces. In
1225addition, it results in a lot of ugly code, making the use of typecasting more
1226of a rule than an exception.
1227
1228\subsection{Composite Refactorings Will Not Appear as Atomic Actions}
1229
1230\subsubsection{Missing Flexibility from JDT Refactorings}
1231The JDT refactorings are not made with composition of refactorings in mind. When
1232a JDT refactoring is executed, it assumes that all conditions for it to be
1233applied successfully can be found by reading source files that has been
1234persisted to disk. They can only operate on the actual source material, and not
1235(in-memory) copies thereof. This constitutes a major disadvantage when trying to
1236compose refactorings, since if an exception occur in the middle of a sequence of
1237refactorings, it can leave the project in a state where the composite
1238refactoring was executed only partly. It makes it hard to discard the changes
1239done without monitoring and consulting the undo manager, an approach that is not
1240bullet proof.
1241
1242\subsubsection{Broken Undo History}
1243When designing a composed refactoring that is to be performed as a sequence of
1244refactorings, you would like it to appear as a single change to the workspace.
1245This implies that you would also like to be able to undo all the changes done by
1246the refactoring in a single step. This is not the way it appears when a sequence
1247of JDT refactorings is executed. It leaves the undo history filled up with
1248individual undo actions corresponding to every single JDT refactoring in the
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1249sequence. This problem is not trivial to handle in Eclipse.
1250\See{hacking_undo_history}
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1251
1252\section{Wishful Thinking}
3727b75b 1253\todoin{???}
80663734 1254
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1255\chapter{Composite Refactorings in Eclipse}
1256
1257\section{A Simple Ad Hoc Model}
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1258As pointed out in \myref{ch:jdt_refactorings}, the Eclipse JDT refactoring model
1259is not very well suited for making composite refactorings. Therefore a simple
1260model using changer objects (of type \type{RefaktorChanger}) is used as an
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1261abstraction layer on top of the existing Eclipse refactorings, instead of
1262extending the \typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring}{Refactoring} class.
1263
1264The use of an additional abstraction layer is a deliberate choice. It is due to
1265the problem of creating a composite
1266\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring}{Change} that can handle text
1267changes that interfere with each other. Thus, a \type{RefaktorChanger} may, or
1268may not, take advantage of one or more existing refactorings, but it is always
1269intended to make a change to the workspace.
1270
1271\subsection{A typical \type{RefaktorChanger}}
1272The typical refaktor changer class has two responsibilities, checking
1273preconditions and executing the requested changes. This is not too different
1274from the responsibilities of an LTK refactoring, with the distinction that a
1275refaktor changer also executes the change, while an LTK refactoring is only
1276responsible for creating the object that can later be used to do the job.
1277
1278Checking of preconditions is typically done by an
1279\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.analyzers}{Analyzer}. If the
1280preconditions validate, the upcoming changes are executed by an
1281\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.executors}{Executor}.
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1282
1283\section{The Extract and Move Method Refactoring}
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1284%The Extract and Move Method Refactoring is implemented mainly using these
1285%classes:
1286%\begin{itemize}
1287% \item \type{ExtractAndMoveMethodChanger}
1288% \item \type{ExtractAndMoveMethodPrefixesExtractor}
1289% \item \type{Prefix}
1290% \item \type{PrefixSet}
1291%\end{itemize}
1292
1293\subsection{The Building Blocks}
1294This is a composite refactoring, and hence is built up using several primitive
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1295refactorings. These basic building blocks are, as its name implies, the
1296\ExtractMethod refactoring\citing{refactoring} and the \MoveMethod
1297refactoring\citing{refactoring}. In Eclipse, the implementations of these
1298refactorings are found in the classes
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1299\typewithref{org.eclipse.jdt.internal.corext.refactoring.code}{ExtractMethodRefactoring}
1300and
1301\typewithref{org.eclipse.jdt.internal.corext.refactoring.structure}{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor},
1302where the last class is designed to be used together with the processor-based
1303\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.participants}{MoveRefactoring}.
1304
1305\subsubsection{The ExtractMethodRefactoring Class}
1306This class is quite simple in its use. The only parameters it requires for
1307construction is a compilation
1308unit\typeref{org.eclipse.jdt.core.ICompilationUnit}, the offset into the source
1309code where the extraction shall start, and the length of the source to be
1310extracted. Then you have to set the method name for the new method together with
50954fde 1311its visibility and some not so interesting parameters.
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1312
1313\subsubsection{The MoveInstanceMethodProcessor Class}
50954fde 1314For the Move Method, the processor requires a little more advanced input than
61420ef7 1315the class for the Extract Method. For construction it requires a method
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1316handle\typeref{org.eclipse.jdt.core.IMethod} for the method that is to be moved.
1317Then the target for the move have to be supplied as the variable binding from a
1318chosen variable declaration. In addition to this, one have to set some
1319parameters regarding setters/getters, as well as delegation.
61420ef7 1320
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1321To make a working refactoring from the processor, one have to create a
1322\type{MoveRefactoring} with it.
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1323
1324\subsection{The ExtractAndMoveMethodChanger Class}
50954fde 1325
61420ef7 1326The \typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.changers}{ExtractAndMoveMethodChanger}
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1327class is a subclass of the class
1328\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.changers}{RefaktorChanger}. It is responsible
1329for analyzing and finding the best target for, and also executing, a composition
1330of the Extract Method and Move Method refactorings. This particular changer is
1331the one of my changers that is closest to being a true LTK refactoring. It can
1332be reworked to be one if the problems with overlapping changes are resolved. The
1333changer requires a text selection and the name of the new method, or else a
1334method name will be generated. The selection has to be of the type
1335\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.utils}{CompilationUnitTextSelection}. This
1336class is a custom extension to
1337\typewithref{org.eclipse.jface.text}{TextSelection}, that in addition to the
1338basic offset, length and similar methods, also carry an instance of the
1339underlying compilation unit handle for the selection.
1340
1341\subsubsection{The \type{ExtractAndMoveMethodAnalyzer}}
1342The analysis and precondition checking is done by the
1343\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.analyzers}{ExtractAnd\-MoveMethodAnalyzer}.
1344First is check whether the selection is a valid selection or not, with respect
1345to statement boundaries and that it actually contains any selections. Then it
1346checks the legality of both extracting the selection and also moving it to
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1347another class. This checking of is performed by a range of checkers
1348\see{checkers}. If the selection is approved as legal, it is analyzed to find
1349the presumably best target to move the extracted method to.
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1350
1351For finding the best suitable target the analyzer is using a
1352\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.collectors}{PrefixesCollector} that
1353collects all the possible candidates for the refactoring. All the non-candidates
1354is found by an
1355\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.collectors}{UnfixesCollector} that
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1356collects all the targets that will give some kind of error if used. (For
1357details about the property collectors, se \myref{propertyCollectors}.) All
1358prefixes (and unfixes) are represented by a
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1359\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.extractors}{Prefix}, and they are collected
1360into sets of prefixes. The safe prefixes is found by subtracting from the set of
b8fce5af 1361candidate prefixes the prefixes that is enclosing any of the unfixes. A prefix
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1362is enclosing an unfix if the unfix is in the set of its sub-prefixes. As an
1363example, \texttt{``a.b''} is enclosing \texttt{``a''}, as is \texttt{``a''}. The
1364safe prefixes is unified in a \type{PrefixSet}. If a prefix has only one
1365occurrence, and is a simple expression, it is considered unsuitable as a move
1366target. This occurs in statements such as \texttt{``a.foo()''}. For such
1367statements it bares no meaning to extract and move them. It only generates an
1368extra method and the calling of it.
50954fde 1369
0f6e45f8 1370\todoin{Clean up sections/subsections.}
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1371
1372\subsubsection{The \type{ExtractAndMoveMethodExecutor}}
1373If the analysis finds a possible target for the composite refactoring, it is
1374executed by an
1375\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.executors}{ExtractAndMoveMethodExecutor}.
1376It is composed of the two executors known as
1377\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.executors}{ExtractMethodRefactoringExecutor}
1378and
1379\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.executors}{MoveMethodRefactoringExecutor}.
1380The \type{ExtractAndMoveMethodExecutor} is responsible for gluing the two
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1381together by feeding the \type{MoveMethod\-RefactoringExecutor} with the
1382resources needed after executing the extract method refactoring.
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1383\See{postExtractExecution}
1384
1385\subsubsection{The \type{ExtractMethodRefactoringExecutor}}
1386This executor is responsible for creating and executing an instance of the
1387\type{ExtractMethodRefactoring} class. It is also responsible for collecting
1388some post execution resources that can be used to find the method handle for the
1389extracted method, as well as information about its parameters, including the
1390variable they originated from.
1391
1392\subsubsection{The \type{MoveMethodRefactoringExecutor}}
1393This executor is responsible for creating and executing an instance of the
1394\type{MoveRefactoring}. The move refactoring is a processor-based refactoring,
1395and for the Move Method refactoring it is the \type{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor}
1396that is used.
1397
1398The handle for the method to be moved is found on the basis of the information
1399gathered after the execution of the Extract Method refactoring. The only
1400information the \type{ExtractMethodRefactoring} is sharing after its execution,
1401regarding find the method handle, is the textual representation of the new
1402method signature. Therefore it must be parsed, the strings for types of the
1403parameters must be found and translated to a form that can be used to look up
1404the method handle from its type handle. They have to be on the unresolved
1405form.\todo{Elaborate?} The name for the type is found from the original
1406selection, since an extracted method must end up in the same type as the
1407originating method.
1408
1409When analyzing a selection prior to performing the Extract Method refactoring, a
1410target is chosen. It has to be a variable binding, so it is either a field or a
1411local variable/parameter. If the target is a field, it can be used with the
1412\type{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor} as it is, since the extracted method still is
1413in its scope. But if the target is local to the originating method, the target
1414that is to be used for the processor must be among its parameters. Thus the
1415target must be found among the extracted method's parameters. This is done by
1416finding the parameter information object that corresponds to the parameter that
1417was declared on basis of the original target's variable when the method was
1418extracted. (The extracted method must take one such parameter for each local
1419variable that is declared outside the selection that is extracted.) To match the
1420original target with the correct parameter information object, the key for the
1421information object is compared to the key from the original target's binding.
1422The source code must then be parsed to find the method declaration for the
1423extracted method. The new target must be found by searching through the
1424parameters of the declaration and choose the one that has the same type as the
1425old binding from the parameter information object, as well as the same name that
1426is provided by the parameter information object.
1427
1428
1429\subsection{Finding the IMethod}\label{postExtractExecution}
1430\todoin{Rename section. Write.}
61420ef7 1431
61420ef7 1432
b0e80574 1433\subsection{The Prefix Class}
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1434This class exists mainly for holding data about a prefix, such as the expression
1435that the prefix represents and the occurrence count of the prefix within a
1436selection. In addition to this, it has some functionality such as calculating
1437its sub-prefixes and intersecting it with another prefix. The definition of the
1438intersection between two prefixes is a prefix representing the longest common
1439expression between the two.
1440
b0e80574 1441\subsection{The PrefixSet Class}
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1442A prefix set holds elements of type \type{Prefix}. It is implemented with the
1443help of a \typewithref{java.util}{HashMap} and contains some typical set
1444operations, but it does not implement the \typewithref{java.util}{Set}
1445interface, since the prefix set does not need all of the functionality a
1446\type{Set} requires to be implemented. In addition It needs some other
1447functionality not found in the \type{Set} interface. So due to the relatively
1448limited use of prefix sets, and that it almost always needs to be referenced as
1449such, and not a \type{Set<Prefix>}, it remains as an ad hoc solution to a
1450concrete problem.
1451
1452There are two ways adding prefixes to a \type{PrefixSet}. The first is through
1453its \method{add} method. This works like one would expect from a set. It adds
1454the prefix to the set if it does not already contain the prefix. The other way
1455is to \emph{register} the prefix with the set. When registering a prefix, if the
1456set does not contain the prefix, it is just added. If the set contains the
1457prefix, its count gets incremented. This is how the occurrence count is handled.
1458
1459The prefix set also computes the set of prefixes that is not enclosing any
1460prefixes of another set. This is kind of a set difference operation only for
1461enclosing prefixes.
b0e80574 1462
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1463\subsection{Hacking the Refactoring Undo
1464History}\label{hacking_undo_history}
a6415293 1465\todoin{Where to put this section?}
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1466
1467As an attempt to make multiple subsequent changes to the workspace appear as a
1468single action (i.e. make the undo changes appear as such), I tried to alter
1469the undo changes\typeref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.Change} in the history
1470of the refactorings.
1471
1472My first impulse was to remove the, in this case, last two undo changes from the
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1473undo manager\typeref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.IUndoManager} for the
1474Eclipse refactorings, and then add them to a composite
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1475change\typeref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.CompositeChange} that could be
1476added back to the manager. The interface of the undo manager does not offer a
1477way to remove/pop the last added undo change, so a possible solution could be to
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1478decorate\citing{designPatterns} the undo manager, to intercept and collect the
1479undo changes before delegating to the \method{addUndo}
f041551b 1480method\methodref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.IUndoManager}{addUndo} of the
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1481manager. Instead of giving it the intended undo change, a null change could be
1482given to prevent it from making any changes if run. Then one could let the
1483collected undo changes form a composite change to be added to the manager.
1484
1485There is a technical challenge with this approach, and it relates to the undo
1486manager, and the concrete implementation
1487UndoManager2\typeref{org.eclipse.ltk.internal.core.refactoring.UndoManager2}.
1488This implementation is designed in a way that it is not possible to just add an
1489undo change, you have to do it in the context of an active
1490operation\typeref{org.eclipse.core.commands.operations.TriggeredOperations}.
1491One could imagine that it might be possible to trick the undo manager into
1492believing that you are doing a real change, by executing a refactoring that is
1493returning a kind of null change that is returning our composite change of undo
1494refactorings when it is performed.
1495
1496Apart from the technical problems with this solution, there is a functional
1497problem: If it all had worked out as planned, this would leave the undo history
1498in a dirty state, with multiple empty undo operations corresponding to each of
1499the sequentially executed refactoring operations, followed by a composite undo
1500change corresponding to an empty change of the workspace for rounding of our
1501composite refactoring. The solution to this particular problem could be to
1502intercept the registration of the intermediate changes in the undo manager, and
1503only register the last empty change.
1504
1505Unfortunately, not everything works as desired with this solution. The grouping
1506of the undo changes into the composite change does not make the undo operation
1507appear as an atomic operation. The undo operation is still split up into
1508separate undo actions, corresponding to the change done by its originating
1509refactoring. And in addition, the undo actions has to be performed separate in
1510all the editors involved. This makes it no solution at all, but a step toward
1511something worse.
1512
1513There might be a solution to this problem, but it remains to be found. The
1514design of the refactoring undo management is partly to be blamed for this, as it
1515it is to complex to be easily manipulated.
1516
b0e80574 1517
0d7fbd88 1518
2f2080fb 1519
03674629 1520\chapter{Analyzing Source Code in Eclipse}
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1521
1522\section{The Java model}
1523The Java model of Eclipse is its internal representation of a Java project. It
1524is light-weight, and has only limited possibilities for manipulating source
1525code. It is typically used as a basis for the Package Explorer in Eclipse.
1526
1527The elements of the Java model is only handles to the underlying elements. This
1528means that the underlying element of a handle does not need to actually exist.
1529Hence the user of a handle must always check that it exist by calling the
1530\method{exists} method of the handle.
1531
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1532The handles with descriptions is listed in \myref{tab:javaModelTable}.
1533
1534\begin{table}[h]
1535 \centering
1536
1537 \newcolumntype{L}[1]{>{\hsize=#1\hsize\raggedright\arraybackslash}X}%
1538 % sum must equal number of columns (3)
1539 \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{| L{0.7} | L{1.1} | L{1.2} |}
1540 \hline
1541 \textbf{Project Element} & \textbf{Java Model element} &
1542 \textbf{Description} \\
1543 \hline
1544 Java project & \type{IJavaProject} & The Java project which contains all other objects. \\
1545 \hline
1546 Source folder /\linebreak[2] binary folder /\linebreak[3] external library &
1547 \type{IPackageFragmentRoot} & Hold source or binary files, can be a folder
1548 or a library (zip / jar file). \\
1549 \hline
1550 Each package & \type{IPackageFragment} & Each package is below the
1551 \type{IPackageFragmentRoot}, sub-packages are not leaves of the package,
1552 they are listed directed under \type{IPackageFragmentRoot}. \\
1553 \hline
1554 Java Source file & \type{ICompilationUnit} & The Source file is always below
1555 the package node. \\
1556 \hline
1557 Types /\linebreak[2] Fields /\linebreak[3] Methods & \type{IType} /
1558 \linebreak[0]
1559 \type{IField} /\linebreak[3] \type{IMethod} & Types, fields and methods. \\
1560 \hline
1561 \end{tabularx}
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1562 \caption{The elements of the Java Model. {\footnotesize Taken from
1563 \url{http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/EclipseJDT/article.html}}}
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1564 \label{tab:javaModelTable}
1565\end{table}
1566
1567The hierarchy of the Java Model is shown in \myref{fig:javaModel}.
1568
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1569\begin{figure}[h]
1570 \centering
1571 \begin{tikzpicture}[%
1572 grow via three points={one child at (0,-0.7) and
1573 two children at (0,-0.7) and (0,-1.4)},
1574 edge from parent path={(\tikzparentnode.south west)+(0.5,0) |-
1575 (\tikzchildnode.west)}]
1576 \tikzstyle{every node}=[draw=black,thick,anchor=west]
1577 \tikzstyle{selected}=[draw=red,fill=red!30]
1578 \tikzstyle{optional}=[dashed,fill=gray!50]
1579 \node {\type{IJavaProject}}
1580 child { node {\type{IPackageFragmentRoot}}
1581 child { node {\type{IPackageFragment}}
1582 child { node {\type{ICompilationUnit}}
1583 child { node {\type{IType}}
1584 child { node {\type{\{ IType \}*}}
1585 child { node {\type{\ldots}}}
1586 }
1587 child [missing] {}
1588 child { node {\type{\{ IField \}*}}}
1589 child { node {\type{IMethod}}
1590 child { node {\type{\{ IType \}*}}
1591 child { node {\type{\ldots}}}
1592 }
1593 }
1594 child [missing] {}
1595 child [missing] {}
1596 child { node {\type{\{ IMethod \}*}}}
1597 }
1598 child [missing] {}
1599 child [missing] {}
1600 child [missing] {}
1601 child [missing] {}
1602 child [missing] {}
1603 child [missing] {}
1604 child [missing] {}
1605 child { node {\type{\{ IType \}*}}}
1606 }
1607 child [missing] {}
1608 child [missing] {}
1609 child [missing] {}
1610 child [missing] {}
1611 child [missing] {}
1612 child [missing] {}
1613 child [missing] {}
1614 child [missing] {}
1615 child [missing] {}
1616 child { node {\type{\{ ICompilationUnit \}*}}}
1617 }
1618 child [missing] {}
1619 child [missing] {}
1620 child [missing] {}
1621 child [missing] {}
1622 child [missing] {}
1623 child [missing] {}
1624 child [missing] {}
1625 child [missing] {}
1626 child [missing] {}
1627 child [missing] {}
1628 child [missing] {}
1629 child { node {\type{\{ IPackageFragment \}*}}}
1630 }
1631 child [missing] {}
1632 child [missing] {}
1633 child [missing] {}
1634 child [missing] {}
1635 child [missing] {}
1636 child [missing] {}
1637 child [missing] {}
1638 child [missing] {}
1639 child [missing] {}
1640 child [missing] {}
1641 child [missing] {}
1642 child [missing] {}
1643 child [missing] {}
1644 child { node {\type{\{ IPackageFragmentRoot \}*}}}
1645 ;
1646 \end{tikzpicture}
1647 \caption{The Java model of Eclipse. ``\type{\{ SomeElement \}*}'' means
1648 \type{SomeElement} zero or more times. For recursive structures,
1649 ``\type{\ldots}'' is used.}
1650 \label{fig:javaModel}
1651\end{figure}
1652
1653\section{The Abstract Synax Tree}
03674629
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1654Eclipse is following the common paradigm of using an abstract syntaxt tree for
1655source code analysis and manipulation.
1656
03674629
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1657When parsing program source code into something that can be used as a foundation
1658for analysis, the start of the process follows the same steps as in a compiler.
1659This is all natural, because the way a compiler anayzes code is no different
1660from how source manipulation programs would do it, except for some properties of
1661code that is analyzed in the parser, and that they may be differing in what
4e468834 1662kinds of properties they analyze. Thus the process of translation source code
03674629 1663into a structure that is suitable for analyzing, can be seen as a kind of
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1664interrupted compilation process \see{fig:interruptedCompilationProcess}.
1665
1666\begin{figure}[h]
1667 \centering
1668 \tikzset{
c876d1a4 1669 base/.style={anchor=north, align=center, rectangle, minimum height=1.4cm},
65e213db 1670 basewithshadow/.style={base, drop shadow, fill=white},
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1671 outlined/.style={basewithshadow, draw, rounded corners, minimum
1672 width=0.4cm},
1673 primary/.style={outlined, font=\bfseries},
65e213db 1674 dashedbox/.style={outlined, dashed},
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1675 arrowpath/.style={black, align=center, font=\small},
1676 processarrow/.style={arrowpath, ->, >=angle 90, shorten >=1pt},
65e213db 1677 }
62563950 1678 \begin{tikzpicture}[node distance=1.3cm and 3cm, scale=1, every
c876d1a4 1679 node/.style={transform shape}]
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1680 \node[base](AuxNode1){\small source code};
1681 \node[primary, right=of AuxNode1, xshift=-2.5cm](Scanner){Scanner};
c876d1a4 1682 \node[primary, right=of Scanner, xshift=0.5cm](Parser){Parser};
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1683 \node[dashedbox, below=of Parser](SemanticAnalyzer){Semantic\\Analyzer};
1684 \node[dashedbox, left=of SemanticAnalyzer](SourceCodeOptimizer){Source
1685 Code\\Optimizer};
1686 \node[dashedbox, below=of SourceCodeOptimizer
c876d1a4 1687 ](CodeGenerator){Code\\Generator};
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1688 \node[dashedbox, right=of CodeGenerator](TargetCodeOptimizer){Target
1689 Code\\Optimizer};
1690 \node[base, right=of TargetCodeOptimizer](AuxNode2){};
c876d1a4 1691
62563950
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1692 \draw[processarrow](AuxNode1) -- (Scanner);
1693
1694 \path[arrowpath] (Scanner) -- node [sloped](tokens){tokens}(Parser);
1695 \draw[processarrow](Scanner) -- (tokens) -- (Parser);
1696
1697 \path[arrowpath] (Parser) -- node (syntax){syntax
1698 tree}(SemanticAnalyzer);
1699 \draw[processarrow](Parser) -- (syntax) -- (SemanticAnalyzer);
1700
1701 \path[arrowpath] (SemanticAnalyzer) -- node
1702 [sloped](annotated){annotated\\tree}(SourceCodeOptimizer);
1703 \draw[processarrow, dashed](SemanticAnalyzer) -- (annotated) --
1704 (SourceCodeOptimizer);
1705
1706 \path[arrowpath] (SourceCodeOptimizer) -- node
1707 (intermediate){intermediate code}(CodeGenerator);
1708 \draw[processarrow, dashed](SourceCodeOptimizer) -- (intermediate) --
1709 (CodeGenerator);
1710
1711 \path[arrowpath] (CodeGenerator) -- node [sloped](target1){target
c876d1a4 1712 code}(TargetCodeOptimizer);
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1713 \draw[processarrow, dashed](CodeGenerator) -- (target1) --
1714 (TargetCodeOptimizer);
1715
1716 \path[arrowpath](TargetCodeOptimizer) -- node [sloped](target2){target
c876d1a4 1717 code}(AuxNode2);
62563950 1718 \draw[processarrow, dashed](TargetCodeOptimizer) -- (target2) (AuxNode2);
65e213db 1719 \end{tikzpicture}
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1720 \caption{Interrupted compilation process. {\footnotesize (Full compilation
1721 process from \emph{Compiler construction: principles and practice} by
1722 Kenneth C. Louden\citing{louden1997}.)}}
65e213db
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1723 \label{fig:interruptedCompilationProcess}
1724\end{figure}
1725
1726\todoin{Refine \myref{fig:interruptedCompilationProcess}.}
03674629
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1727
1728The process starts with a \emph{scanner}, or lexer. The job of the scanner is to
1729read the source code and divide it into tokens for the parser. Therefore, it is
1730also sometimes called a tokenizer. A token is a logical unit, defined in the
1731language specification, consisting of one or more consecutive characters. In
1732the java language the tokens can for instance be the \var{this} keyword, a curly
1733bracket \var{\{} or a \var{nameToken}. It is recognized by the scanner on the
1734basis of something eqivalent of a regular expression. This part of the process
1735is often implemented with the use of a finite automata. In fact, it is common to
1736specify the tokens in regular expressions, that in turn is translated into a
1737finite automata lexer. This process can be automated.
1738
1739The program component used to translate a a stream of tokens into something
1740meaningful, is called a parser. A parser is fed tokens from the scanner and
1741performs an analysis of the structure of a program. It verifies that the syntax
1742is correct according to the grammar rules of a language, that is usually
1743specified in a context-free grammar, and often in a variant of the
1744\emph{Backus--Naur
1745Form}\footnote{\url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backus-Naur\_Form}}. The
1746result coming from the parser is in the form of an \emph{Abstract Syntax Tree},
1747AST for short. It is called \emph{abstract}, because the structure does not
1748contain all of the tokens produced by the scanner. It only contain logical
1749constructs, and because it forms a tree, all kinds of parentheses and brackets
1750are implicit in the structure. It is this AST that is used when performing the
1751semantic analysis of the code.
1752
1753As an example we can think of the expression \code{(5 + 7) * 2}. The root of
d11bcf4d
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1754this tree would in Eclipse be an \type{InfixExpression} with the operator
1755\var{TIMES}, and a left operand that is also an \type{InfixExpression} with the
1756operator \var{PLUS}. The left operand \type{InfixExpression}, has in turn a left
1757operand of type \type{NumberLiteral} with the value \var{``5''} and a right
1758operand \type{NumberLiteral} with the value \var{``7''}. The root will have a
1759right operand of type \type{NumberLiteral} and value \var{``2''}. The AST for
1760this expression is illustrated in \myref{fig:astInfixExpression}.
1761
4e468834
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1762Contrary to the Java Model, an abstract syntaxt tree is a heavy-weight
1763representation of source code. It contains information about propertes like type
1764bindings for variables and variable bindings for names.
1765
1766
d11bcf4d
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1767\begin{figure}[h]
1768 \centering
a1d68d95 1769 \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=0.8]
894dce0d 1770 \tikzset{level distance=40pt}
a1d68d95
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1771 \tikzset{sibling distance=5pt}
1772 \tikzstyle{thescale}=[scale=0.8]
1773 \tikzset{every tree node/.style={align=center}}
d11bcf4d 1774 \tikzset{edge from parent/.append style={thick}}
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1775 \tikzstyle{inode}=[rectangle,rounded corners,draw,fill=lightgray,drop
1776 shadow,align=center]
1777 \tikzset{every internal node/.style={inode}}
894dce0d 1778 \tikzset{every leaf node/.style={draw=none,fill=none}}
d11bcf4d 1779
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1780 \Tree [.\type{InfixExpression} [.\type{InfixExpression}
1781 [.\type{NumberLiteral} \var{``5''} ] [.\type{Operator} \var{PLUS} ]
1782 [.\type{NumberLiteral} \var{``7''} ] ]
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1783 [.\type{Operator} \var{TIMES} ]
1784 [.\type{NumberLiteral} \var{``2''} ]
1785 ]
1786 \end{tikzpicture}
894dce0d 1787 \caption{The abstract syntax tree for the expression \code{(5 + 7) * 2}.}
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1788 \label{fig:astInfixExpression}
1789\end{figure}
03674629
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1790
1791\subsection{The AST in Eclipse}
1792In Eclipse, every node in the AST is a child of the abstract superclass
1793\typewithref{org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom}{ASTNode}. Every \type{ASTNode}, among a
1794lot of other things, provides information about its position and length in the
1795source code, as well as a reference to its parent and to the root of the tree.
1796
1797The root of the AST is always of type \type{CompilationUnit}. It is not the same
1798as an instance of an \type{ICompilationUnit}, which is the compilation unit
894dce0d 1799handle of the Java model. The children of a \type{CompilationUnit} is an
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1800optional \type{PackageDeclaration}, zero or more nodes of type
1801\type{ImportDecaration} and all its top-level type declarations that has node
1802types \type{AbstractTypeDeclaration}.
1803
1804An \type{AbstractType\-Declaration} can be one of the types
1805\type{AnnotationType\-Declaration}, \type{Enum\-Declaration} or
1806\type{Type\-Declaration}. The children of an \type{AbstractType\-Declaration}
1807must be a subtype of a \type{BodyDeclaration}. These subtypes are:
1808\type{AnnotationTypeMember\-Declaration}, \type{EnumConstant\-Declaration},
1809\type{Field\-Declaration}, \type{Initializer} and \type{Method\-Declaration}.
1810
1811Of the body declarations, the \type{Method\-Declaration} is the most interesting
1812one. Its children include lists of modifiers, type parameters, parameters and
1813exceptions. It has a return type node and a body node. The body, if present, is
1814of type \type{Block}. A \type{Block} is itself a \type{Statement}, and its
1815children is a list of \type{Statement} nodes.
1816
1817There are too many types of the abstract type \type{Statement} to list up, but
1818there exists a subtype of \type{Statement} for every statement type of Java, as
1819one would expect. This also applies to the abstract type \type{Expression}.
1820However, the expression \type{Name} is a little special, since it is both used
1821as an operand in compound expressions, as well as for names in type declarations
1822and such.
1823
94deee9e
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1824There is an overview of some of the structure of an Eclipse AST in
1825\myref{fig:astEclipse}.
1826
e8173df5
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1827\begin{figure}[h]
1828 \centering
5e5908eb 1829 \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=0.8]
0f918507
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1830 \tikzset{level distance=50pt}
1831 \tikzset{sibling distance=5pt}
5e5908eb 1832 \tikzstyle{thescale}=[scale=0.8]
e8173df5 1833 \tikzset{every tree node/.style={align=center}}
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1834 \tikzset{edge from parent/.append style={thick}}
1835 \tikzstyle{inode}=[rectangle,rounded corners,draw,fill=lightgray,drop
1836 shadow,align=center]
1837 \tikzset{every internal node/.style={inode}}
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1838 \tikzset{every leaf node/.style={draw=none,fill=none}}
1839
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1840 \Tree [.\type{CompilationUnit} [.\type{[ PackageDeclaration ]} [.\type{Name} ]
1841 [.\type{\{ Annotation \}*} ] ]
1842 [.\type{\{ ImportDeclaration \}*} [.\type{Name} ] ]
0f918507 1843 [.\type{\{ AbstractTypeDeclaration \}+} [.\node(site){\type{\{
e601ce99 1844 BodyDeclaration \}*}}; ] [.\type{SimpleName} ] ]
e8173df5 1845 ]
e601ce99 1846 \begin{scope}[shift={(0.5,-6)}]
5e5908eb 1847 \node[inode,thescale](root){\type{MethodDeclaration}};
e601ce99 1848 \node[inode,thescale](modifiers) at (4.5,-5){\type{\{ IExtendedModifier \}*}
5e5908eb 1849 \\ {\footnotesize (Of type \type{Modifier} or \type{Annotation})}};
e601ce99 1850 \node[inode,thescale](typeParameters) at (-6,-3.5){\type{\{ TypeParameter
5e5908eb 1851 \}*}};
fbeec228 1852 \node[inode,thescale](parameters) at (-5,-5){\type{\{
5e5908eb 1853 SingleVariableDeclaration \}*} \\ {\footnotesize (Parameters)}};
e601ce99 1854 \node[inode,thescale](exceptions) at (5,-3){\type{\{ Name \}*} \\
5e5908eb 1855 {\footnotesize (Exceptions)}};
e601ce99 1856 \node[inode,thescale](return) at (-6.5,-2){\type{Type} \\ {\footnotesize
5e5908eb 1857 (Return type)}};
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1858 \begin{scope}[shift={(0,-5)}]
1859 \Tree [.\node(body){\type{[ Block ]} \\ {\footnotesize (Body)}};
1860 [.\type{\{ Statement \}*} [.\type{\{ Expression \}*} ]
1861 [.\type{\{ Statement \}*} [.\type{\ldots} ]]
1862 ]
1863 ]
1864 \end{scope}
0f918507 1865 \end{scope}
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1866 \draw[->,>=triangle 90,shorten >=1pt](root.east)..controls +(east:2) and
1867 +(south:1)..(site.south);
0f918507 1868
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1869 \draw (root.south) -- (modifiers);
1870 \draw (root.south) -- (typeParameters);
1871 \draw (root.south) -- ($ (parameters.north) + (2,0) $);
1872 \draw (root.south) -- (exceptions);
1873 \draw (root.south) -- (return);
1874 \draw (root.south) -- (body);
1875
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1876 \end{tikzpicture}
1877 \caption{The format of the abstract syntax tree in Eclipse.}
1878 \label{fig:astEclipse}
1879\end{figure}
94deee9e 1880\todoin{Add more to the AST format tree? \myref{fig:astEclipse}}
a2868580 1881
b8fce5af 1882\section{The ASTVisitor}\label{astVisitor}
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1883So far, the only thing that has been adressed is how the the data that is going
1884to be the basis for our analysis is structured. Another aspect of it is how we
1885are going to traverse the AST to gather the information we need, so we can
1886conclude about the properties we are analysing. It is of course possible to
1887start at the top of the tree, and manually search through its nodes for the ones
1888we are looking for, but that is a bit inconvenient. To be able to efficiently
1889utilize such an approach, we would need to make our own framework for traversing
1890the tree and visiting only the types of nodes we are after. Luckily, this
1891functionality is already provided in Eclipse, by its
1892\typewithref{org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom}{ASTVisitor}.
1893
1894The Eclipse AST, together with its \type{ASTVisitor}, follows the \emph{Visitor}
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1895pattern\citing{designPatterns}. The intent of this design pattern is to
1896facilitate extending the functionality of classes without touching the classes
1897themselves.
1898
1899Let us say that there is a class hierarchy of \emph{Elements}. These elements
1900all have a method \method{accept(Visitor visitor)}. In its simplest form, the
1901\method{accept} method just calls the \method{visit} method of the visitor with
1902itself as an argument, like this: \code{visitor.visit(this)}. For the visitors
1903to be able to extend the functionality of all the classes in the elements
1904hierarchy, each \type{Visitor} must have one visit method for each concrete
1905class in the hierarchy. Say the hierarchy consists of the concrete classes
1906\type{ConcreteElementA} and \type{ConcreteElementB}. Then each visitor must have
1907the (possibly empty) methods \method{visit(ConcreteElementA element)} and
1908\method{visit(ConcreteElementB element)}. This scenario is depicted in
1909\myref{fig:visitorPattern}.
50976f51 1910
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1911\begin{figure}[h]
1912 \centering
1913 \tikzstyle{abstract}=[rectangle, draw=black, fill=white, drop shadow, text
1914 centered, anchor=north, text=black, text width=6cm, every one node
1915part/.style={align=center, font=\bfseries\itshape}]
1916 \tikzstyle{concrete}=[rectangle, draw=black, fill=white, drop shadow, text
1917 centered, anchor=north, text=black, text width=6cm]
1918 \tikzstyle{inheritarrow}=[->, >=open triangle 90, thick]
1919 \tikzstyle{commentarrow}=[->, >=angle 90, dashed]
1920 \tikzstyle{line}=[-, thick]
1921 \tikzset{every one node part/.style={align=center, font=\bfseries}}
1922 \tikzset{every second node part/.style={align=center, font=\ttfamily}}
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1923
1924 \begin{tikzpicture}[node distance=1cm, scale=0.8, every node/.style={transform
1925 shape}]
1926 \node (Element) [abstract, rectangle split, rectangle split parts=2]
1927 {
1928 \nodepart{one}{Element}
1929 \nodepart{second}{+accept(visitor: Visitor)}
1930 };
1931 \node (AuxNode01) [text width=0, minimum height=2cm, below=of Element] {};
1932 \node (ConcreteElementA) [concrete, rectangle split, rectangle split
1933 parts=2, left=of AuxNode01]
1934 {
1935 \nodepart{one}{ConcreteElementA}
1936 \nodepart{second}{+accept(visitor: Visitor)}
1937 };
1938 \node (ConcreteElementB) [concrete, rectangle split, rectangle split
1939 parts=2, right=of AuxNode01]
1940 {
1941 \nodepart{one}{ConcreteElementB}
1942 \nodepart{second}{+accept(visitor: Visitor)}
1943 };
1944
1945 \node[comment, below=of ConcreteElementA] (CommentA) {visitor.visit(this)};
1946
1947 \node[comment, below=of ConcreteElementB] (CommentB) {visitor.visit(this)};
1948
1949 \node (AuxNodeX) [text width=0, minimum height=1cm, below=of AuxNode01] {};
1950
1951 \node (Visitor) [abstract, rectangle split, rectangle split parts=2,
1952 below=of AuxNodeX]
1953 {
1954 \nodepart{one}{Visitor}
1955 \nodepart{second}{+visit(ConcreteElementA)\\+visit(ConcreteElementB)}
1956 };
1957 \node (AuxNode02) [text width=0, minimum height=2cm, below=of Visitor] {};
1958 \node (ConcreteVisitor1) [concrete, rectangle split, rectangle split
1959 parts=2, left=of AuxNode02]
1960 {
1961 \nodepart{one}{ConcreteVisitor1}
1962 \nodepart{second}{+visit(ConcreteElementA)\\+visit(ConcreteElementB)}
1963 };
1964 \node (ConcreteVisitor2) [concrete, rectangle split, rectangle split
1965 parts=2, right=of AuxNode02]
1966 {
1967 \nodepart{one}{ConcreteVisitor2}
1968 \nodepart{second}{+visit(ConcreteElementA)\\+visit(ConcreteElementB)}
1969 };
1970
1971
1972 \draw[inheritarrow] (ConcreteElementA.north) -- ++(0,0.7) -|
1973 (Element.south);
1974 \draw[line] (ConcreteElementA.north) -- ++(0,0.7) -|
1975 (ConcreteElementB.north);
1976
1977 \draw[inheritarrow] (ConcreteVisitor1.north) -- ++(0,0.7) -|
1978 (Visitor.south);
1979 \draw[line] (ConcreteVisitor1.north) -- ++(0,0.7) -|
1980 (ConcreteVisitor2.north);
1981
1982 \draw[commentarrow] (CommentA.north) -- (ConcreteElementA.south);
1983 \draw[commentarrow] (CommentB.north) -- (ConcreteElementB.south);
1984
1985
1986 \end{tikzpicture}
1987 \caption{The Visitor Pattern.}
1988 \label{fig:visitorPattern}
1989\end{figure}
1990
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1991The use of the visitor pattern can be appropriate when the hierarchy of elements
1992is mostly stable, but the family of operations over its elements is constantly
1993growing. This is clearly the cas for the Eclipse AST, since the hierarchy of
1994type \type{ASTNode} is very stable, but the functionality of its elements is
1995extended every time someone needs to operate on the AST. Another aspect of the
1996Eclipse implementation is that it is a public API, and the visitor pattern is an
1997easy way to provide access to the nodes in the tree.
1998
1999The version of the visitor pattern implemented for the AST nodes in Eclipse also
2000provides an elegant way to traverse the tree. It does so by following the
2001convention that every node in the tree first let the visitor visit itself,
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2002before it also makes all its children accept the visitor. The children are only
2003visited if the visit method of their parent returns \var{true}. This pattern
2004then makes for a prefix traversal of the AST. If postfix traversal is desired,
2005the visitors also has \method{endVisit} methods for each node type, that is
2006called after the \method{visit} method for a node. In addition to these visit
2007methods, there are also the methods \method{preVisit(ASTNode)},
2008\method{postVisit(ASTNode)} and \method{preVisit2(ASTNode)}. The
2009\method{preVisit} method is called before the type-specific \method{visit}
2010method. The \method{postVisit} method is called after the type-specific
2011\method{endVisit}. The type specific \method{visit} is only called if
2012\method{preVisit2} returns \var{true}. Overriding the \method{preVisit2} is also
2013altering the behavior of \method{preVisit}, since the default implementation is
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2014responsible for calling it.
2015
2016An example of a trivial \type{ASTVisitor} is shown in
2017\myref{lst:astVisitorExample}.
2018
2019\begin{listing}
2020\begin{minted}{java}
2021public class CollectNamesVisitor extends ASTVisitor {
2022 Collection<Name> names = new LinkedList<Name>();
2023
2024 @Override
2025 public boolean visit(QualifiedName node) {
2026 names.add(node);
2027 return false;
2028 }
2029
2030 @Override
2031 public boolean visit(SimpleName node) {
2032 names.add(node);
2033 return true;
2034 }
2035}
2036\end{minted}
2037\caption{An \type{ASTVisitor} that visits all the names in a subtree and adds
2038them to a collection, except those names that are children of any
2039\type{QualifiedName}.}
2040\label{lst:astVisitorExample}
2041\end{listing}
2042
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2043\section{Property collectors}\label{propertyCollectors}
2044The prefixes and unfixes are found by property
2045collectors\typeref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.extractors.collectors.PropertyCollector}.
2046A property collector is of the \type{ASTVisitor} type, and thus visits nodes of
2047type \type{ASTNode} of the abstract syntax tree \see{astVisitor}.
2048
2049\subsection{The PrefixesCollector}
2050The \typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.extractors.collectors}{PrefixesCollector}
2051finds prefixes that makes up tha basis for calculating move targets for the
2052Extract and Move Method refactoring. It visits expression
2053statements\typeref{org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom.ExpressionStatement} and creates
2054prefixes from its expressions in the case of method invocations. The prefixes
2055found is registered with a prefix set, together with all its sub-prefixes.
2056
2057\subsection{The UnfixesCollector}\label{unfixes}
2058The \typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.extractors.collectors}{UnfixesCollector}
2059finds unfixes within a selection. That is prefixes that cannot be used as a
2060basis for finding a move target in a refactoring.
2061
2062An unfix can be a name that is assigned to within a selection. The reason that
2063this cannot be allowed, is that the result would be an assignment to the
2064\type{this} keyword, which is not valid in Java \see{eclipse_bug_420726}.
2065
2066Prefixes that originates from variable declarations within the same selection
2067are also considered unfixes. This is because when a method is moved, it needs to
2068be called through a variable. If this variable is also within the method that is
2069to be moved, this obviously cannot be done.
2070
2071Also considered as unfixes are variable references that are of types that is not
2072suitable for moving a methods to. This can be either because it is not
2073physically possible to move the method to the desired class or that it will
2074cause compilation errors by doing so.
2075
2076If the type binding for a name is not resolved it is considered and unfix. The
2077same applies to types that is only found in compiled code, so they have no
2078underlying source that is accessible to us. (E.g. the \type{java.lang.String}
2079class.)
2080
2081Interfaces types are not suitable as targets. This is simply because interfaces
2082in java cannot contain methods with bodies. (This thesis does not deal with
2083features of Java versions later than Java 7. Java 8 has interfaces with default
2084implementations of methods.) Neither are local types allowed. This accounts for
2085both local and anonymous classes. Anonymous classes are effectively the same as
2086interface types with respect to unfixes. Local classes could in theory be used
2087as targets, but this is not possible due to limitations of the implementation of
2088the Extract and Move Method refactoring. The problem is that the refactoring is
2089done in two steps, so the intermediate state between the two refactorings would
2090not be legal Java code. In the case of local classes, the problem is that, in
2091the intermediate step, a selection referencing a local class would need to take
2092the local class as a parameter if it were to be extracted to a new method. This
2093new method would need to live in the scope of the declaring class of the
2094originating method. The local class would then not be in the scope of the
2095extracted method, thus bringing the source code into an illegal state. One could
2096imagine that the method was extracted and moved in one operation, without an
2097intermediate state. Then it would make sense to include variables with types of
2098local classes in the set of legal targets, since the local classes would then be
2099in the scopes of the method calls. If this makes any difference for software
2100metrics that measure coupling would be a different discussion.
2101
2102\begin{listing}
2103\begin{multicols}{2}
2104\begin{minted}[]{java}
2105// Before
2106void declaresLocalClass() {
2107 class LocalClass {
2108 void foo() {}
2109 void bar() {}
2110 }
2111
2112 LocalClass inst =
2113 new LocalClass();
2114 inst.foo();
2115 inst.bar();
2116}
2117\end{minted}
2118
2119\columnbreak
2120
2121\begin{minted}[]{java}
2122// After Extract Method
2123void declaresLocalClass() {
2124 class LocalClass {
2125 void foo() {}
2126 void bar() {}
2127 }
2128
2129 LocalClass inst =
2130 new LocalClass();
2131 fooBar(inst);
2132}
2133
2134// Intermediate step
2135void fooBar(LocalClass inst) {
2136 inst.foo();
2137 inst.bar();
2138}
2139\end{minted}
2140\end{multicols}
2141\caption{When Extract and Move Method tries to use a variable with a local type
2142as the move target, an intermediate step is taken that is not allowed. Here:
2143\type{LocalClass} is not in the scope of \method{fooBar} in its intermediate
2144location.}
2145\label{lst:extractMethod_LocalClass}
2146\end{listing}
2147
2148The last class of names that are considered unfixes is names used in null tests.
2149These are tests that reads like this: if \texttt{<name>} equals \var{null} then
2150do something. If allowing variables used in those kinds of expressions as
2151targets for moving methods, we would end up with code containing boolean
2152expressions like \texttt{this == null}, which would not be meaningful, since
2153\var{this} would never be \var{null}.
2154
0a8ca90c 2155
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2156\subsection{The ContainsReturnStatementCollector}
2157The
2158\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.collectors}{ContainsReturnStatementCollector}
2159is a very simple property collector. It only visits the return statements within
2160a selection, and can report whether it encountered a return statement or not.
2161
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2162\subsection{The LastStatementCollector}
2163The \typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.collectors}{LastStatementCollector}
2164collects the last statement of a selection. It does so by only visiting the top
2165level statements of the selection, and compares the textual end offset of each
2166encuntered statement with the end offset of the previous statement found.
2167
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2168\section{Checkers}\label{checkers}
2169The checkers are a range of classes that checks that selections complies with
2170certian criterias. If a
2171\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.analyzers}{Checker} fails, it throws a
2172\type{CheckerException}. The checkers are managed by the
2173\type{LegalStatementsChecker}, which does not, in fact, implement the
2174\type{Checker} interface. It does, however, run all the checkers registered with
2175it, and reports that all statements are considered legal if no
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2176\type{CheckerException} is thrown. Many of the checkers either extends the
2177\type{PropertyCollector} or utilizes one or more of them to verify some
2178criterias.
95c0f364 2179
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2180\subsection{The EnclosingInstanceReferenceChecker}
2181The purpose of this checker is to verify that the names in a selection is not
2182referencing any enclosing instances. This is for making sure that all references
2183is legal in a method that is to be moved. Theoretically, some situations could
2184be easily solved my passing a reference to the referenced class with the moved
2185method (e.g. when calling public methods), but the dependency on the
2186\type{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor} prevents this.
2187
2188The
2189\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.analyzers}{EnclosingInstanceReferenceChecker}
2190is a modified version of the
2191\typewithref{org.eclipse.jdt.internal.corext.refactoring.structure.MoveInstanceMethodProcessor}{EnclosingInstanceReferenceFinder}
2192from the \type{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor}. Wherever the
2193\type{EnclosingInstanceReferenceFinder} would create a fatal error status, the
2194checker throws a \type{CheckerException}.
2195
2196It works by first finding all of the enclosing types of a selection. Thereafter
2197it visits all its simple names to check that they are not references to
2198variables or methods declared in any of the enclosing types. In addition the
2199checker visits \var{this}-expressions to verify that no such expressions is
2200qualified with any name.
2201
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2202\subsection{The ReturnStatementsChecker}
2203\todoin{Write\ldots}
2204
2205\subsection{The AmbiguousReturnValueChecker}
2206\todoin{Write\ldots}
2207
2208\subsection{The IllegalStatementsChecker}
2209This checker is designed to check for illegal statements.
2210
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2211Any use of the \var{super} keyword is prohibited, since its meaning is altered
2212when moving a method to another class.
2213
2214For a \emph{break} statement, there is two situations to consider: A break
2215statement with or without a label. If the break statement has a label, it is
2216checked that whole of the labeled statement is inside the selection. Since a
2217label does not have any binding information, we have to search upwards in the
2218AST to find the \type{LabeledStatement} that corresponds to the label from the
2219break statement, and check that it is contained in the selection. If the break
2220statement does not have a label attached to it, it is checked that its innermost
2221enclosing loop or switch statement also is inside the selection.
2222
2223The situation for a \emph{continue} statement is the same as for a break
2224statement, except that it is not allowed inside switch statements.
2225
2226Regarding \emph{assignments}, two types of assignments is allowed: Assignment to
2227a non-final variable and assignment to an array access. All other assignments is
2228regarded illegal.
2229
2230\todoin{Finish\ldots}
41cde50e 2231
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2232\section{Illegal selections}
2233
2234\subsection{Not all branches end in return}
2235
2236\subsection{Ambiguous return statement}
2237This problem occurs when there is either more than one assignment to a local
2238variable that is used outside of the selection, or there is only one, but there
2239are also return statements in the selection.
2240
2241\todoin{Explain why we do not need to consider variables assigned inside
2242local/anonymous classes. (The referenced variables need to be final and so
2243on\ldots)}
2244
3727b75b 2245\chapter{Eclipse Bugs Found}
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2246\todoin{Add other things and change headline?}
2247
2248\section{Eclipse bug 420726: Code is broken when moving a method that is
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2249assigning to the parameter that is also the move
2250destination}\label{eclipse_bug_420726}
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2251This bug\footnote{\url{https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show\_bug.cgi?id=420726}}
2252was found when analyzing what kinds of names that was to be considered as
3727b75b 2253\emph{unfixes} \see{unfixes}.
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2254
2255\subsection{The bug}
2256The bug emerges when trying to move a method from one class to another, and when
2257the target for the move (must be a variable, local or field) is both a parameter
2258variable and also is assigned to within the method body. Eclipse allows this to
2259happen, although it is the sure path to a compilation error. This is because we
2260would then have an assignment to a \var{this} expression, which is not allowed
2261in Java.
2262
2263\subsection{The solution}
2264The solution to this problem is to add all simple names that are assigned to in
2265a method body to the set of unfixes.
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2266
2267\section{Eclipse bug 429416: IAE when moving method from anonymous class}
2268I
2269discovered\footnote{\url{https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show\_bug.cgi?id=429416}}
2270this bug during a batch change on the \type{org.eclipse.jdt.ui} project.
2271
2272\subsection{The bug}
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2273This bug surfaces when trying to use the Move Method refactoring to move a
2274method from an anonymous class to another class. This happens both for my
2275simulation as well as in Eclipse, through the user interface. It only occurs
03674629 2276when Eclipse analyzes the program and finds it necessary to pass an instance of
94bb49f0 2277the originating class as a parameter to the moved method. I.e. it want to pass a
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2278\var{this} expression. The execution ends in an
2279\typewithref{java.lang}{IllegalArgumentException} in
2280\typewithref{org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom}{SimpleName} and its
2281\method{setIdentifier(String)} method. The simple name is attempted created in
2282the method
2283\methodwithref{org.eclipse.jdt.internal.corext.refactoring.structure.\\MoveInstanceMethodProcessor}{createInlinedMethodInvocation}
2284so the \type{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor} was early a clear suspect.
2285
2286The \method{createInlinedMethodInvocation} is the method that creates a method
2287invocation where the previous invocation to the method that was moved was. From
2288its code it can be read that when a \var{this} expression is going to be passed
2289in to the invocation, it shall be qualified with the name of the original
2290method's declaring class, if the declaring class is either an anonymous clas or
2291a member class. The problem with this, is that an anonymous class does not have
2292a name, hence the term \emph{anonymous} class! Therefore, when its name, an
2293empty string, is passed into
2294\methodwithref{org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom.AST}{newSimpleName} it all ends in an
2295\type{IllegalArgumentException}.
2296
2297\subsection{How I solved the problem}
2298Since the \type{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor} is instantiated in the
2299\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.executors}{MoveMethod\-RefactoringExecutor},
2300and only need to be a
2301\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.participants}{MoveProcessor}, I
2302was able to copy the code for the original move processor and modify it so that
2303it works better for me. It is now called
2304\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.refactorings.processors}{ModifiedMoveInstanceMethodProcessor}.
2305The only modification done (in addition to some imports and suppression of
2306warnings), is in the \method{createInlinedMethodInvocation}. When the declaring
2307class of the method to move is anonymous, the \var{this} expression in the
2308parameter list is not qualified with the declaring class' (empty) name.
2309
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2310\section{Eclipse bug 429954: Extracting statement with reference to local type
2311breaks code}\label{eclipse_bug_429954}
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2312The bug\footnote{\url{https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show\_bug.cgi?id=429954}}
2313was discovered when doing some changes to the way unfixes is computed.
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2314
2315\subsection{The bug}
2316The problem is that Eclipse is allowing selections that references variables of
2317local types to be extracted. When this happens the code is broken, since the
2318extracted method must take a parameter of a local type that is not in the
2319methods scope. The problem is illustrated in
2320\myref{lst:extractMethod_LocalClass}, but there in another setting.
2321
2322\subsection{Actions taken}
2323There are no actions directly springing out of this bug, since the Extract
a6415293 2324Method refactoring cannot be meant to be this way. This is handled on the
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2325analysis stage of our Extract and Move Method refactoring. So names representing
2326variables of local types is considered unfixes \see{unfixes}.
2327\todoin{write more when fixing this in legal statements checker}
2328
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2329\chapter{Related Work}
2330
2331\section{The compositional paradigm of refactoring}
2332This paradigm builds upon the observation of Vakilian et
2333al.\citing{vakilian2012}, that of the many automated refactorings existing in
2334modern IDEs, the simplest ones are dominating the usage statistics. The report
2335mainly focuses on \emph{Eclipse} as the tool under investigation.
2336
2337The paradigm is described almost as the opposite of automated composition of
2338refactorings \see{compositeRefactorings}. It works by providing the programmer
2339with easily accessible primitive refactorings. These refactorings shall be
2340accessed via keyboard shortcuts or quick-assist menus\footnote{Think
2341quick-assist with Ctrl+1 in Eclipse} and be promptly executed, opposed to in the
2342currently dominating wizard-based refactoring paradigm. They are ment to
2343stimulate composing smaller refactorings into more complex changes, rather than
2344doing a large upfront configuration of a wizard-based refactoring, before
2345previewing and executing it. The compositional paradigm of refactoring is
2346supposed to give control back to the programmer, by supporting \himher with an
2347option of performing small rapid changes instead of large changes with a lesser
2348degree of control. The report authors hope this will lead to fewer unsuccessful
2349refactorings. It also could lower the bar for understanding the steps of a
2350larger composite refactoring and thus also help in figuring out what goes wrong
2351if one should choose to op in on a wizard-based refactoring.
2352
2353Vakilian and his associates have performed a survey of the effectiveness of the
2354compositional paradigm versus the wizard-based one. They claim to have found
2355evidence of that the \emph{compositional paradigm} outperforms the
2356\emph{wizard-based}. It does so by reducing automation, which seem
2357counterintuitive. Therefore they ask the question ``What is an appropriate level
2358of automation?'', and thus questions what they feel is a rush toward more
2359automation in the software engineering community.
2360
2361
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2362\backmatter{}
2363\printbibliography
055dca93 2364\listoftodos
9ff90080 2365\end{document}