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c8088eec 1\documentclass[USenglish,11pt]{ifimaster}
571ef294 2\usepackage{import}
7c28933b 3\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
9ff90080 4\usepackage[T1]{fontenc,url}
3510e539 5\usepackage{lmodern} % using Latin Modern to be able to use bold typewriter font
b4e539f7 6%\usepackage{mathpazo}
9ff90080 7\urlstyle{sf}
128adb4f 8\usepackage{listings}
4e468834 9\usepackage{tabularx}
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10\usepackage{tikz}
11\usepackage{tikz-qtree}
5e5908eb 12\usetikzlibrary{shapes,snakes,trees,arrows,shadows,positioning,calc}
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13\usepackage{babel,textcomp,csquotes,ifimasterforside}
14
15\usepackage{varioref}
79d5c2a9 16\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}
8b6b22c8 17\usepackage{cleveref}
fe0a4c48 18\usepackage[xindy,entrycounter]{glossaries}
ae138b9d 19
fe0a4c48 20\usepackage[style=alphabetic,backend=biber]{biblatex}
12c254af 21\usepackage{amsthm}
3471cd15 22\usepackage{mathtools}
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23\usepackage{graphicx}
24% use 'disable' before printing:
25\usepackage[]{todonotes}
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26\usepackage{xspace}
27\usepackage{he-she}
b289552b 28\usepackage{verbatim}
ddcea0b5 29\usepackage{minted}
347ed677 30\usepackage{multicol}
ddcea0b5 31\usemintedstyle{bw}
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32\usepackage{perpage} %the perpage package
33\MakePerPage{footnote} %the perpage package command
9ff90080 34
6c51af15 35\theoremstyle{definition}
12c254af 36\newtheorem*{wordDef}{Definition}
3471cd15 37\newtheorem*{theorem}{Theorem}
12c254af 38
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39\graphicspath{ {./figures/} }
40
8b6b22c8 41\newcommand{\citing}[1]{~\cite{#1}}
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42%\newcommand{\myref}[1]{\cref{#1} on \cpageref{#1}}
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46%\newcommand{\gloss}[1]{\gls{#1}\glossref{#1}}
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53\newcommand{\explanation}[3]{\noindent\textbf{\textit{#1}}\\*\emph{When:}
54#2\\*\emph{How:} #3\\*[-7px]}
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57\newcommand{\code}[1]{\texttt{\textbf{#1}}}
58\newcommand{\type}[1]{\code{#1}}
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59\newcommand{\typeref}[1]{\footnote{\type{#1}}}
60\newcommand{\typewithref}[2]{\type{#2}\typeref{#1.#2}}
61\newcommand{\method}[1]{\type{#1}}
62\newcommand{\methodref}[2]{\footnote{\type{#1}\method{\##2()}}}
63\newcommand{\methodwithref}[2]{\method{#2}\footnote{\type{#1}\method{\##2()}}}
3510e539 64\newcommand{\var}[1]{\type{#1}}
9ff90080 65
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66\newcommand{\name}[1]{#1}
67\newcommand{\tit}[1]{\emph{#1}}
68\newcommand{\refa}[1]{\emph{#1}}
69\newcommand{\pattern}[1]{\emph{#1}}
70\newcommand{\metr}[1]{\emph{#1}}
71\newcommand{\ExtractMethod}{\refa{Extract Method}\xspace}
72\newcommand{\MoveMethod}{\refa{Move Method}\xspace}
73\newcommand{\ExtractAndMoveMethod}{\refa{Extract and Move Method}\xspace}
b5c7bb1b 74
7125ceac 75\newcommand\todoin[2][]{\todo[inline, caption={#2}, #1]{
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76\begin{minipage}{\textwidth-4pt}#2\end{minipage}}}
77
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78\title{Automated Composition of Refactorings}
79\subtitle{Composing the Extract and Move Method refactorings in Eclipse}
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80\author{Erlend Kristiansen}
81
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82\makeglossaries
83\newglossaryentry{profiling}
84{
85 name=profiling,
86 description={is to run a computer program through a profiler/with a profiler
87 attached}
88}
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89\newglossaryentry{profiler}
90{
91 name=profiler,
92 description={A profiler is a program for analyzing performance within an
93 application. It is used to analyze memory consumption, processing time and
94frequency of procedure calls and such.}
95}
96\newglossaryentry{xUnit}
97{
98 name={xUnit framework},
99 description={An xUnit framework is a framework for writing unit tests for a
100 computer program. It follows the patterns known from the JUnit framework for
101 Java\citing{fowlerXunit}
102 },
103 plural={xUnit frameworks}
104}
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105\newglossaryentry{softwareObfuscation}
106{
107 name={software obfuscation},
108 description={makes source code harder to read and analyze, while preserving
109 its semantics}
110}
111\newglossaryentry{extractClass}
112{
113 name=\refa{Extract Class},
114 description={The \refa{Extract Class} refactoring works by creating a class,
115for then to move members from another class to that class and access them from
116the old class via a reference to the new class}
117}
118\newglossaryentry{designPattern}
119{
120 name={design pattern},
121 description={A design pattern is a named abstraction, that is meant to solve a
122 general design problem. It describes the key aspects of a common problem and
123identifies its participators and how they collaborate},
124 plural={design patterns}
125}
126\newglossaryentry{extractMethod}
127{
128 name=\refa{Extract Method},
129 description={The \refa{Extract Method} refactoring is used to extract a
130fragment of code from its context and into a new method. A call to the new
131method is inlined where the fragment was before. It is used to break code into
132logical units, with names that explain their purpose}
133}
134\newglossaryentry{moveMethod}
135{
136 name=\refa{Move Method},
137 description={The \refa{Move Method} refactoring is used to move a method from
138 one class to another. This is useful if the method is using more features of
139 another class than of the class which it is currently defined. Then all calls
140 to this method must be updated, or the method must be copied, with the old
141method delegating to the new method}
142}
f5fb40e4 143
7c28933b 144\bibliography{bibliography/master-thesis-erlenkr-bibliography}
9ff90080 145
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146% UML comment in TikZ:
147% ref: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/103688/folded-paper-shape-tikz
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148\makeatletter
149\pgfdeclareshape{umlcomment}{
150 \inheritsavedanchors[from=rectangle] % this is nearly a rectangle
151 \inheritanchorborder[from=rectangle]
152 \inheritanchor[from=rectangle]{center}
153 \inheritanchor[from=rectangle]{north}
154 \inheritanchor[from=rectangle]{south}
155 \inheritanchor[from=rectangle]{west}
156 \inheritanchor[from=rectangle]{east}
157 % ... and possibly more
158 \backgroundpath{% this is new
159 % store lower right in xa/ya and upper right in xb/yb
160 \southwest \pgf@xa=\pgf@x \pgf@ya=\pgf@y
161 \northeast \pgf@xb=\pgf@x \pgf@yb=\pgf@y
162 % compute corner of ‘‘flipped page’’
163 \pgf@xc=\pgf@xb \advance\pgf@xc by-10pt % this should be a parameter
164 \pgf@yc=\pgf@yb \advance\pgf@yc by-10pt
165 % construct main path
166 \pgfpathmoveto{\pgfpoint{\pgf@xa}{\pgf@ya}}
167 \pgfpathlineto{\pgfpoint{\pgf@xa}{\pgf@yb}}
168 \pgfpathlineto{\pgfpoint{\pgf@xc}{\pgf@yb}}
169 \pgfpathlineto{\pgfpoint{\pgf@xb}{\pgf@yc}}
170 \pgfpathlineto{\pgfpoint{\pgf@xb}{\pgf@ya}}
171 \pgfpathclose
172 % add little corner
173 \pgfpathmoveto{\pgfpoint{\pgf@xc}{\pgf@yb}}
174 \pgfpathlineto{\pgfpoint{\pgf@xc}{\pgf@yc}}
175 \pgfpathlineto{\pgfpoint{\pgf@xb}{\pgf@yc}}
176 \pgfpathlineto{\pgfpoint{\pgf@xc}{\pgf@yc}}
177 }
178}
179\makeatother
180
181\tikzstyle{comment}=[%
182 draw,
183 drop shadow,
184 fill=white,
185 align=center,
186 shape=document,
187 minimum width=20mm,
188 minimum height=10mm,
189 shape=umlcomment,
190 inner sep=2ex,
191 font=\ttfamily,
192]
193
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194%\interfootnotelinepenalty=10000
195
9ff90080 196\begin{document}
fe0a4c48 197\pagenumbering{roman}
531c4132 198\ififorside
9ff90080 199\frontmatter{}
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200
201
202\chapter*{Abstract}
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203\todoin{\textbf{Remove all todos (including list) before delivery/printing!!!
204Can be done by removing ``draft'' from documentclass.}}
889ba93e 205\todoin{Write abstract}
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206
207\tableofcontents{}
208\listoffigures{}
209\listoftables{}
210
211\chapter*{Preface}
212
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213The discussions in this report must be seen in the context of object oriented
214programming languages, and Java in particular, since that is the language in
215which most of the examples will be given. All though the techniques discussed
216may be applicable to languages from other paradigms, they will not be the
217subject of this report.
f3a108c3 218
055dca93 219\mainmatter
00aa0588 220
740e1b6c 221\chapter{What is Refactoring?}
7c28933b 222
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223This question is best answered by first defining the concept of a
224\emph{refactoring}, what it is to \emph{refactor}, and then discuss what aspects
a1bafe90 225of programming make people want to refactor their code.
00aa0588 226
740e1b6c 227\section{Defining refactoring}
a1bafe90 228Martin Fowler, in his classic book on refactoring\citing{refactoring}, defines a
00aa0588 229refactoring like this:
ee45c41f 230
00aa0588 231\begin{quote}
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232 \emph{Refactoring} (noun): a change made to the internal
233 structure\footnote{The structure observable by the programmer.} of software to
234 make it easier to understand and cheaper to modify without changing its
235 observable behavior.~\cite[p.~53]{refactoring}
00aa0588 236\end{quote}
ee45c41f 237
a1bafe90 238\noindent This definition assigns additional meaning to the word
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239\emph{refactoring}, beyond the composition of the prefix \emph{re-}, usually
240meaning something like ``again'' or ``anew'', and the word \emph{factoring},
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241that can mean to isolate the \emph{factors} of something. Here a \emph{factor}
242would be close to the mathematical definition of something that divides a
243quantity, without leaving a remainder. Fowler is mixing the \emph{motivation}
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244behind refactoring into his definition. Instead it could be more refined, formed
245to only consider the \emph{mechanical} and \emph{behavioral} aspects of
246refactoring. That is to factor the program again, putting it together in a
247different way than before, while preserving the behavior of the program. An
248alternative definition could then be:
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249
250\definition{A \emph{refactoring} is a transformation
8fae7b44 251done to a program without altering its external behavior.}
00aa0588 252
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253From this we can conclude that a refactoring primarily changes how the
254\emph{code} of a program is perceived by the \emph{programmer}, and not the
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255\emph{behavior} experienced by any user of the program. Although the logical
256meaning is preserved, such changes could potentially alter the program's
257behavior when it comes to performance gain or -penalties. So any logic depending
258on the performance of a program could make the program behave differently after
259a refactoring.
00aa0588 260
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261In the extreme case one could argue that \gloss{softwareObfuscation} is
262refactoring. It is often used to protect proprietary software. It restrains
263uninvited viewers, so they have a hard time analyzing code that they are not
264supposed to know how works. This could be a problem when using a language that
265is possible to decompile, such as Java.
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266
267Obfuscation could be done composing many, more or less randomly chosen,
268refactorings. Then the question arises whether it can be called a
269\emph{composite refactoring} or not \see{compositeRefactorings}? The answer is
270not obvious. First, there is no way to describe the mechanics of software
271obfuscation, because there are infinitely many ways to do that. Second,
272obfuscation can be thought of as \emph{one operation}: Either the code is
273obfuscated, or it is not. Third, it makes no sense to call software obfuscation
274\emph{a refactoring}, since it holds different meaning to different people.
275
276This last point is important, since one of the motivations behind defining
277different refactorings, is to establish a \emph{vocabulary} for software
278professionals to use when reasoning about and discussing programs, similar to
fe0a4c48 279the motivation behind \glosspl{designPattern}\citing{designPatterns}.
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280\begin{comment}
281So for describing \emph{software obfuscation}, it might be more appropriate to
282define what you do when performing it rather than precisely defining its
283mechanics in terms of other refactorings.
284\end{comment}
00aa0588 285
740e1b6c 286\section{The etymology of 'refactoring'}
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287It is a little difficult to pinpoint the exact origin of the word
288``refactoring'', as it seems to have evolved as part of a colloquial
289terminology, more than a scientific term. There is no authoritative source for a
290formal definition of it.
291
b5c7bb1b 292According to Martin Fowler\citing{etymology-refactoring}, there may also be more
f3a108c3 293than one origin of the word. The most well-known source, when it comes to the
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294origin of \emph{refactoring}, is the
295Smalltalk\footnote{\label{footNote}Programming language} community and their
fe0a4c48 296infamous \name{Refactoring
f3a108c3 297Browser}\footnote{\url{http://st-www.cs.illinois.edu/users/brant/Refactory/RefactoringBrowser.html}}
fe0a4c48 298described in the article \tit{A Refactoring Tool for
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299Smalltalk}\citing{refactoringBrowser1997}, published in 1997.
300Allegedly\citing{etymology-refactoring}, the metaphor of factoring programs was
b4e539f7 301also present in the Forth\textsuperscript{\ref{footNote}} community, and the
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302word ``refactoring'' is mentioned in a book by Leo Brodie, called \tit{Thinking
303Forth}\citing{brodie2004}, first published in 1984\footnote{\tit{Thinking Forth}
304was first published in 1984 by the \name{Forth Interest Group}. Then it was
305reprinted in 1994 with minor typographical corrections, before it was
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306transcribed into an electronic edition typeset in \LaTeX\ and published under a
307Creative Commons licence in
3082004. The edition cited here is the 2004 edition, but the content should
309essentially be as in 1984.}. The exact word is only printed one
310place~\cite[p.~232]{brodie2004}, but the term \emph{factoring} is prominent in
311the book, that also contains a whole chapter dedicated to (re)factoring, and how
312to keep the (Forth) code clean and maintainable.
ee45c41f 313
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314\begin{quote}
315 \ldots good factoring technique is perhaps the most important skill for a
3a154bb7 316 Forth programmer.~\cite[p.~172]{brodie2004}
f3a108c3 317\end{quote}
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318
319\noindent Brodie also express what \emph{factoring} means to him:
320
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321\begin{quote}
322 Factoring means organizing code into useful fragments. To make a fragment
323 useful, you often must separate reusable parts from non-reusable parts. The
324 reusable parts become new definitions. The non-reusable parts become arguments
3a154bb7 325 or parameters to the definitions.~\cite[p.~172]{brodie2004}
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326\end{quote}
327
328Fowler claims that the usage of the word \emph{refactoring} did not pass between
fe0a4c48 329the \name{Forth} and \name{Smalltalk} communities, but that it emerged
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330independently in each of the communities.
331
740e1b6c 332\section{Motivation -- Why people refactor}
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333There are many reasons why people want to refactor their programs. They can for
334instance do it to remove duplication, break up long methods or to introduce
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335design patterns into their software systems. The shared trait for all these are
336that peoples' intentions are to make their programs \emph{better}, in some
337sense. But what aspects of their programs are becoming improved?
338
339As just mentioned, people often refactor to get rid of duplication. They are
340moving identical or similar code into methods, and are pushing methods up or
341down in their class hierarchies. They are making template methods for
342overlapping algorithms/functionality, and so on. It is all about gathering what
343belongs together and putting it all in one place. The resulting code is then
344easier to maintain. When removing the implicit coupling\footnote{When
345 duplicating code, the duplicate pieces of code might not be coupled, apart
346from representing the same functionality. So if this functionality is going to
347change, it might need to change in more than one place, thus creating an
348implicit coupling between multiple pieces of code.} between code snippets, the
137e0e7b 349location of a bug is limited to only one place, and new functionality need only
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350to be added to this one place, instead of a number of places people might not
351even remember.
352
353A problem you often encounter when programming, is that a program contains a lot
354of long and hard-to-grasp methods. It can then help to break the methods into
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355smaller ones, using the \gloss{extractMethod} refactoring\citing{refactoring}.
356Then you may discover something about a program that you were not aware of
357before; revealing bugs you did not know about or could not find due to the
358complex structure of your program. \todo{Proof?} Making the methods smaller and
359giving good names to the new ones clarifies the algorithms and enhances the
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360\emph{understandability} of the program \see{magic_number_seven}. This makes
361refactoring an excellent method for exploring unknown program code, or code that
362you had forgotten that you wrote.
363
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364Most primitive refactorings are simple, and usually involves moving code
365around\citing{kerievsky2005}. The motivation behind them may first be revealed
366when they are combined into larger --- higher level --- refactorings, called
a1bafe90 367\emph{composite refactorings} \see{compositeRefactorings}. Often the goal of
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368such a series of refactorings is a design pattern. Thus the design can
369\emph{evolve} throughout the lifetime of a program, as opposed to designing
370up-front. It is all about being structured and taking small steps to improve a
371program's design.
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372
373Many software design pattern are aimed at lowering the coupling between
374different classes and different layers of logic. One of the most famous is
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375perhaps the \pattern{Model-View-Controller}\citing{designPatterns} pattern. It
376is aimed at lowering the coupling between the user interface, the business logic
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377and the data representation of a program. This also has the added benefit that
378the business logic could much easier be the target of automated tests, thus
379increasing the productivity in the software development process.
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380
381Another effect of refactoring is that with the increased separation of concerns
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382coming out of many refactorings, the \emph{performance} can be improved. When
383profiling programs, the problematic parts are narrowed down to smaller parts of
384the code, which are easier to tune, and optimization can be performed only where
b4e539f7 385needed and in a more effective way\citing{refactoring}.
137e0e7b 386
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387Last, but not least, and this should probably be the best reason to refactor, is
388to refactor to \emph{facilitate a program change}. If one has managed to keep
389one's code clean and tidy, and the code is not bloated with design patterns that
a1bafe90 390are not ever going to be needed, then some refactoring might be needed to
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391introduce a design pattern that is appropriate for the change that is going to
392happen.
393
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394Refactoring program code --- with a goal in mind --- can give the code itself
395more value. That is in the form of robustness to bugs, understandability and
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396maintainability. Having robust code is an obvious advantage, but
397understandability and maintainability are both very important aspects of
398software development. By incorporating refactoring in the development process,
399bugs are found faster, new functionality is added more easily and code is easier
400to understand by the next person exposed to it, which might as well be the
401person who wrote it. The consequence of this, is that refactoring can increase
402the average productivity of the development process, and thus also add to the
403monetary value of a business in the long run. The perspective on productivity
404and money should also be able to open the eyes of the many nearsighted managers
405that seldom see beyond the next milestone.
137e0e7b 406
b01d328a 407\section{The magical number seven}\label{magic_number_seven}
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408The article \tit{The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our
409capacity for processing information}\citing{miller1956} by George A. Miller,
410was published in the journal \name{Psychological Review} in 1956. It presents
411evidence that support that the capacity of the number of objects a human being
412can hold in its working memory is roughly seven, plus or minus two objects. This
413number varies a bit depending on the nature and complexity of the objects, but
414is according to Miller ``\ldots never changing so much as to be
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415unrecognizable.''
416
417Miller's article culminates in the section called \emph{Recoding}, a term he
418borrows from communication theory. The central result in this section is that by
419recoding information, the capacity of the amount of information that a human can
420process at a time is increased. By \emph{recoding}, Miller means to group
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421objects together in chunks, and give each chunk a new name that it can be
422remembered by.
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423
424\begin{quote}
425 \ldots recoding is an extremely powerful weapon for increasing the amount of
4cb06723 426 information that we can deal with.~\cite[p.~95]{miller1956}
f4cea2d6 427\end{quote}
ee45c41f 428
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429By organizing objects into patterns of ever growing depth, one can memorize and
430process a much larger amount of data than if it were to be represented as its
431basic pieces. This grouping and renaming is analogous to how many refactorings
432work, by grouping pieces of code and give them a new name. Examples are the
fe0a4c48 433fundamental \ExtractMethod and \refa{Extract Class}
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434refactorings\citing{refactoring}.
435
a1bafe90 436An example from the article addresses the problem of memorizing a sequence of
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437binary digits. The example presented here is a slightly modified version of the
438one presented in the original article\citing{miller1956}, but it preserves the
3ab3e132 439essence of it. Let us say we have the following sequence of
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44016 binary digits: ``1010001001110011''. Most of us will have a hard time
441memorizing this sequence by only reading it once or twice. Imagine if we instead
442translate it to this sequence: ``A273''. If you have a background from computer
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443science, it will be obvious that the latter sequence is the first sequence
444recoded to be represented by digits in base 16. Most people should be able to
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445memorize this last sequence by only looking at it once.
446
447Another result from the Miller article is that when the amount of information a
448human must interpret increases, it is crucial that the translation from one code
449to another must be almost automatic for the subject to be able to remember the
0d7fbd88 450translation, before \heshe is presented with new information to recode. Thus
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451learning and understanding how to best organize certain kinds of data is
452essential to efficiently handle that kind of data in the future. This is much
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453like when humans learn to read. First they must learn how to recognize letters.
454Then they can learn distinct words, and later read sequences of words that form
455whole sentences. Eventually, most of them will be able to read whole books and
456briefly retell the important parts of its content. This suggest that the use of
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457design patterns is a good idea when reasoning about computer programs. With
458extensive use of design patterns when creating complex program structures, one
459does not always have to read whole classes of code to comprehend how they
460function, it may be sufficient to only see the name of a class to almost fully
461understand its responsibilities.
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462
463\begin{quote}
464 Our language is tremendously useful for repackaging material into a few chunks
4cb06723 465 rich in information.~\cite[p.~95]{miller1956}
f4cea2d6 466\end{quote}
ee45c41f 467
a1bafe90 468Without further evidence, these results at least indicate that refactoring
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469source code into smaller units with higher cohesion and, when needed,
470introducing appropriate design patterns, should aid in the cause of creating
b4e539f7 471computer programs that are easier to maintain and have code that is easier (and
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472better) understood.
473
740e1b6c 474\section{Notable contributions to the refactoring literature}
4e135659 475\todoin{Update with more contributions}
36d99783 476
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477\begin{description}
478 \item[1992] William F. Opdyke submits his doctoral dissertation called
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479 \tit{Refactoring Object-Oriented Frameworks}\citing{opdyke1992}. This work
480 defines a set of refactorings, that are behavior preserving given that their
481 preconditions are met. The dissertation is focused on the automation of
482 refactorings.
483 \item[1999] Martin Fowler et al.: \tit{Refactoring: Improving the Design of
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484 Existing Code}\citing{refactoring}. This is maybe the most influential text
485 on refactoring. It bares similarities with Opdykes thesis\citing{opdyke1992}
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486 in the way that it provides a catalog of refactorings. But Fowler's book is
487 more about the craft of refactoring, as he focuses on establishing a
488 vocabulary for refactoring, together with the mechanics of different
489 refactorings and when to perform them. His methodology is also founded on
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490 the principles of test-driven development.
491 \item[2005] Joshua Kerievsky: \tit{Refactoring to
36d99783 492 Patterns}\citing{kerievsky2005}. This book is heavily influenced by Fowler's
fe0a4c48 493 \tit{Refactoring}\citing{refactoring} and the ``Gang of Four'' \tit{Design
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494 Patterns}\citing{designPatterns}. It is building on the refactoring
495 catalogue from Fowler's book, but is trying to bridge the gap between
496 \emph{refactoring} and \emph{design patterns} by providing a series of
497 higher-level composite refactorings, that makes code evolve toward or away
fe0a4c48 498 from certain design patterns. The book is trying to build up the reader's
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499 intuition around \emph{why} one would want to use a particular design
500 pattern, and not just \emph{how}. The book is encouraging evolutionary
e123ab03 501 design \see{relationToDesignPatterns}.
d21ef41f 502\end{description}
3b7c1d90 503
110dae91 504\section{Tool support (for Java)}\label{toolSupport}
3ab3e132 505This section will briefly compare the refactoring support of the three IDEs
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506\name{Eclipse}\footnote{\url{http://www.eclipse.org/}}, \name{IntelliJ
507IDEA}\footnote{The IDE under comparison is the \name{Community Edition},
4e135659 508\url{http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/}} and
fe0a4c48 509\name{NetBeans}\footnote{\url{https://netbeans.org/}}. These are the most
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510popular Java IDEs\citing{javaReport2011}.
511
512All three IDEs provide support for the most useful refactorings, like the
513different extract, move and rename refactorings. In fact, Java-targeted IDEs are
514known for their good refactoring support, so this did not appear as a big
515surprise.
516
517The IDEs seem to have excellent support for the \ExtractMethod refactoring, so
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518at least they have all passed the first ``refactoring
519rubicon''\citing{fowlerRubicon2001,secondRubicon2012}.
4e135659 520
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521Regarding the \gloss{moveMethod} refactoring, the \name{Eclipse} and
522\name{IntelliJ} IDEs do the job in very similar manners. In most situations they
523both do a satisfying job by producing the expected outcome. But they do nothing
524to check that the result does not break the semantics of the program
525\see{correctness}.
526The \name{NetBeans} IDE implements this refactoring in a somewhat
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527unsophisticated way. For starters, the refactoring's default destination for the
528move, is the same class as the method already resides in, although it refuses to
529perform the refactoring if chosen. But the worst part is, that if moving the
530method \method{f} of the class \type{C} to the class \type{X}, it will break the
531code. The result is shown in \myref{lst:moveMethod_NetBeans}.
4e135659 532
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533\begin{listing}
534\begin{multicols}{2}
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535\begin{minted}[samepage]{java}
536public class C {
537 private X x;
538 ...
539 public void f() {
540 x.m();
541 x.n();
542 }
543}
544\end{minted}
545
347ed677 546\columnbreak
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547
548\begin{minted}[samepage]{java}
549public class X {
550 ...
551 public void f(C c) {
552 c.x.m();
553 c.x.n();
554 }
555}
556\end{minted}
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557\end{multicols}
558\caption{Moving method \method{f} from \type{C} to \type{X}.}
559\label{lst:moveMethod_NetBeans}
560\end{listing}
4e135659 561
fe0a4c48 562\name{NetBeans} will try to create code that call the methods \method{m} and \method{n}
4e135659 563of \type{X} by accessing them through \var{c.x}, where \var{c} is a parameter of
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564type \type{C} that is added the method \method{f} when it is moved. (This is
565seldom the desired outcome of this refactoring, but ironically, this ``feature''
fe0a4c48 566keeps \name{NetBeans} from breaking the code in the example from \myref{correctness}.)
8b6b22c8 567If \var{c.x} for some reason is inaccessible to \type{X}, as in this case, the
fe0a4c48 568refactoring breaks the code, and it will not compile. \name{NetBeans} presents a
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569preview of the refactoring outcome, but the preview does not catch it if the IDE
570is about break the program.
4778044b 571
b4e539f7 572The IDEs under investigation seem to have fairly good support for primitive
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573refactorings, but what about more complex ones, such as
574\gloss{extractClass}\citing{refactoring}? \name{IntelliJ} handles this in a
575fairly good manner, although, in the case of private methods, it leaves unused
a1bafe90 576methods behind. These are methods that delegate to a field with the type of the
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577new class, but are not used anywhere. \name{Eclipse} has added its own quirk to
578the \refa{Extract Class} refactoring, and only allows for \emph{fields} to be
579moved to a new class, \emph{not methods}. This makes it effectively only
580extracting a data structure, and calling it \refa{Extract Class} is a little
b4e539f7 581misleading. One would often be better off with textual extract and paste than
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582using the \refa{Extract Class} refactoring in \name{Eclipse}. When it comes to
583\name{NetBeans}, it does not even show an attempt on providing this refactoring.
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584
585\todoin{Visual Studio (C++/C\#), Smalltalk refactoring browser?,
4e135659 586second refactoring rubicon?}
3b7c1d90 587
36d99783 588\section{The relation to design patterns}\label{relationToDesignPatterns}
4cb06723 589
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590Refactoring and design patterns have at least one thing in common, they are both
591promoted by advocates of \emph{clean code}\citing{cleanCode} as fundamental
592tools on the road to more maintainable and extendable source code.
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593
594\begin{quote}
595 Design patterns help you determine how to reorganize a design, and they can
596 reduce the amount of refactoring you need to do
597 later.~\cite[p.~353]{designPatterns}
598\end{quote}
599
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600Although sometimes associated with
601over-engineering\citing{kerievsky2005,refactoring}, design patterns are in
602general assumed to be good for maintainability of source code. That may be
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603because many of them are designed to support the \emph{open/closed principle} of
604object-oriented programming. The principle was first formulated by Bertrand
605Meyer, the creator of the Eiffel programming language, like this: ``Modules
606should be both open and closed.''\citing{meyer1988} It has been popularized,
607with this as a common version:
608
609\begin{quote}
610 Software entities (classes, modules, functions, etc.) should be open for
611 extension, but closed for modification.\footnote{See
612 \url{http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?OpenClosedPrinciple} or
613 \url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open/closed_principle}}
614\end{quote}
615
616Maintainability is often thought of as the ability to be able to introduce new
a1bafe90 617functionality without having to change too much of the old code. When
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618refactoring, the motivation is often to facilitate adding new functionality. It
619is about factoring the old code in a way that makes the new functionality being
620able to benefit from the functionality already residing in a software system,
621without having to copy old code into new. Then, next time someone shall add new
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622functionality, it is less likely that the old code has to change. Assuming that
623a design pattern is the best way to get rid of duplication and assist in
624implementing new functionality, it is reasonable to conclude that a design
625pattern often is the target of a series of refactorings. Having a repertoire of
626design patterns can also help in knowing when and how to refactor a program to
627make it reflect certain desired characteristics.
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628
629\begin{quote}
a1bafe90 630 There is a natural relation between patterns and refactorings. Patterns are
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631 where you want to be; refactorings are ways to get there from somewhere
632 else.~\cite[p.~107]{refactoring}
633\end{quote}
634
635This quote is wise in many contexts, but it is not always appropriate to say
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636``Patterns are where you want to be\ldots''. \emph{Sometimes}, patterns are
637where you want to be, but only because it will benefit your design. It is not
638true that one should always try to incorporate as many design patterns as
639possible into a program. It is not like they have intrinsic value. They only add
640value to a system when they support its design. Otherwise, the use of design
641patterns may only lead to a program that is more complex than necessary.
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642
643\begin{quote}
644 The overuse of patterns tends to result from being patterns happy. We are
645 \emph{patterns happy} when we become so enamored of patterns that we simply
646 must use them in our code.~\cite[p.~24]{kerievsky2005}
647\end{quote}
648
649This can easily happen when relying largely on up-front design. Then it is
650natural, in the very beginning, to try to build in all the flexibility that one
651believes will be necessary throughout the lifetime of a software system.
652According to Joshua Kerievsky ``That sounds reasonable --- if you happen to be
653psychic.''~\cite[p.~1]{kerievsky2005} He is advocating what he believes is a
654better approach: To let software continually evolve. To start with a simple
655design that meets today's needs, and tackle future needs by refactoring to
656satisfy them. He believes that this is a more economic approach than investing
657time and money into a design that inevitably is going to change. By relying on
658continuously refactoring a system, its design can be made simpler without
659sacrificing flexibility. To be able to fully rely on this approach, it is of
e123ab03 660utter importance to have a reliable suit of tests to lean on \see{testing}. This
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661makes the design process more natural and less characterized by difficult
662decisions that has to be made before proceeding in the process, and that is
663going to define a project for all of its unforeseeable future.
664
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665\begin{comment}
666
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667\section{Classification of refactorings}
668% only interesting refactorings
669% with 2 detailed examples? One for structured and one for intra-method?
670% Is replacing Bubblesort with Quick Sort considered a refactoring?
671
672\subsection{Structural refactorings}
673
f65da046 674\subsubsection{Primitive refactorings}
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675
676% Composing Methods
677\explanation{Extract Method}{You have a code fragment that can be grouped
678together.}{Turn the fragment into a method whose name explains the purpose of
679the method.}
680
681\explanation{Inline Method}{A method's body is just as clear as its name.}{Put
682the method's body into the body of its callers and remove the method.}
683
684\explanation{Inline Temp}{You have a temp that is assigned to once with a simple
685expression, and the temp is getting in the way of other refactorings.}{Replace
686all references to that temp with the expression}
687
688% Moving Features Between Objects
689\explanation{Move Method}{A method is, or will be, using or used by more
690features of another class than the class on which it is defined.}{Create a new
691method with a similar body in the class it uses most. Either turn the old method
692into a simple delegation, or remove it altogether.}
693
694\explanation{Move Field}{A field is, or will be, used by another class more than
695the class on which it is defined}{Create a new field in the target class, and
696change all its users.}
697
698% Organizing Data
699\explanation{Replace Magic Number with Symbolic Constant}{You have a literal
700number with a particular meaning.}{Create a constant, name it after the meaning,
701and replace the number with it.}
702
703\explanation{Encapsulate Field}{There is a public field.}{Make it private and
704provide accessors.}
705
706\explanation{Replace Type Code with Class}{A class has a numeric type code that
8fae7b44 707does not affect its behavior.}{Replace the number with a new class.}
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708
709\explanation{Replace Type Code with Subclasses}{You have an immutable type code
8fae7b44 710that affects the behavior of a class.}{Replace the type code with subclasses.}
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711
712\explanation{Replace Type Code with State/Strategy}{You have a type code that
8fae7b44 713affects the behavior of a class, but you cannot use subclassing.}{Replace the
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714type code with a state object.}
715
716% Simplifying Conditional Expressions
717\explanation{Consolidate Duplicate Conditional Fragments}{The same fragment of
8fae7b44 718code is in all branches of a conditional expression.}{Move it outside of the
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719expression.}
720
721\explanation{Remove Control Flag}{You have a variable that is acting as a
722control flag fro a series of boolean expressions.}{Use a break or return
723instead.}
724
725\explanation{Replace Nested Conditional with Guard Clauses}{A method has
8fae7b44 726conditional behavior that does not make clear the normal path of
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727execution.}{Use guard clauses for all special cases.}
728
8fae7b44 729\explanation{Introduce Null Object}{You have repeated checks for a null
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730value.}{Replace the null value with a null object.}
731
732\explanation{Introduce Assertion}{A section of code assumes something about the
733state of the program.}{Make the assumption explicit with an assertion.}
734
735% Making Method Calls Simpler
736\explanation{Rename Method}{The name of a method does not reveal its
737purpose.}{Change the name of the method}
738
739\explanation{Add Parameter}{A method needs more information from its
740caller.}{Add a parameter for an object that can pass on this information.}
741
742\explanation{Remove Parameter}{A parameter is no longer used by the method
743body.}{Remove it.}
744
745%\explanation{Parameterize Method}{Several methods do similar things but with
746%different values contained in the method.}{Create one method that uses a
747%parameter for the different values.}
748
749\explanation{Preserve Whole Object}{You are getting several values from an
750object and passing these values as parameters in a method call.}{Send the whole
751object instead.}
752
753\explanation{Remove Setting Method}{A field should be set at creation time and
754never altered.}{Remove any setting method for that field.}
755
756\explanation{Hide Method}{A method is not used by any other class.}{Make the
757method private.}
758
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759\explanation{Replace Constructor with Factory Method}{You want to do more than
760simple construction when you create an object}{Replace the constructor with a
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761factory method.}
762
763% Dealing with Generalization
8fae7b44 764\explanation{Pull Up Field}{Two subclasses have the same field.}{Move the field
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765to the superclass.}
766
767\explanation{Pull Up Method}{You have methods with identical results on
768subclasses.}{Move them to the superclass.}
769
8fae7b44 770\explanation{Push Down Method}{Behavior on a superclass is relevant only for
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771some of its subclasses.}{Move it to those subclasses.}
772
773\explanation{Push Down Field}{A field is used only by some subclasses.}{Move the
774field to those subclasses}
775
776\explanation{Extract Interface}{Several clients use the same subset of a class's
8fae7b44 777interface, or two classes have part of their interfaces in common.}{Extract the
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778subset into an interface.}
779
780\explanation{Replace Inheritance with Delegation}{A subclass uses only part of a
781superclasses interface or does not want to inherit data.}{Create a field for the
782superclass, adjust methods to delegate to the superclass, and remove the
783subclassing.}
784
785\explanation{Replace Delegation with Inheritance}{You're using delegation and
786are often writing many simple delegations for the entire interface}{Make the
787delegating class a subclass of the delegate.}
788
789\subsubsection{Composite refactorings}
790
791% Composing Methods
792% \explanation{Replace Method with Method Object}{}{}
793
794% Moving Features Between Objects
795\explanation{Extract Class}{You have one class doing work that should be done by
796two}{Create a new class and move the relevant fields and methods from the old
797class into the new class.}
798
799\explanation{Inline Class}{A class isn't doing very much.}{Move all its features
800into another class and delete it.}
801
802\explanation{Hide Delegate}{A client is calling a delegate class of an
803object.}{Create Methods on the server to hide the delegate.}
804
805\explanation{Remove Middle Man}{A class is doing to much simple delegation.}{Get
806the client to call the delegate directly.}
807
808% Organizing Data
809\explanation{Replace Data Value with Object}{You have a data item that needs
8fae7b44 810additional data or behavior.}{Turn the data item into an object.}
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811
812\explanation{Change Value to Reference}{You have a class with many equal
813instances that you want to replace with a single object.}{Turn the object into a
814reference object.}
815
816\explanation{Encapsulate Collection}{A method returns a collection}{Make it
8fae7b44 817return a read-only view and provide add/remove methods.}
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818
819% \explanation{Replace Array with Object}{}{}
820
821\explanation{Replace Subclass with Fields}{You have subclasses that vary only in
822methods that return constant data.}{Change the methods to superclass fields and
823eliminate the subclasses.}
824
825% Simplifying Conditional Expressions
826\explanation{Decompose Conditional}{You have a complicated conditional
827(if-then-else) statement.}{Extract methods from the condition, then part, an
828else part.}
829
830\explanation{Consolidate Conditional Expression}{You have a sequence of
831conditional tests with the same result.}{Combine them into a single conditional
832expression and extract it.}
833
834\explanation{Replace Conditional with Polymorphism}{You have a conditional that
8fae7b44 835chooses different behavior depending on the type of an object.}{Move each leg
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836of the conditional to an overriding method in a subclass. Make the original
837method abstract.}
838
839% Making Method Calls Simpler
840\explanation{Replace Parameter with Method}{An object invokes a method, then
841passes the result as a parameter for a method. The receiver can also invoke this
842method.}{Remove the parameter and let the receiver invoke the method.}
843
844\explanation{Introduce Parameter Object}{You have a group of parameters that
845naturally go together.}{Replace them with an object.}
846
847% Dealing with Generalization
848\explanation{Extract Subclass}{A class has features that are used only in some
849instances.}{Create a subclass for that subset of features.}
850
851\explanation{Extract Superclass}{You have two classes with similar
852features.}{Create a superclass and move the common features to the
853superclass.}
854
855\explanation{Collapse Hierarchy}{A superclass and subclass are not very
856different.}{Merge them together.}
857
858\explanation{Form Template Method}{You have two methods in subclasses that
859perform similar steps in the same order, yet the steps are different.}{Get the
860steps into methods with the same signature, so that the original methods become
861the same. Then you can pull them up.}
862
863
864\subsection{Functional refactorings}
865
866\explanation{Substitute Algorithm}{You want to replace an algorithm with one
867that is clearer.}{Replace the body of the method with the new algorithm.}
00aa0588 868
b289552b 869\end{comment}
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870
871\section{The impact on software quality}
872
a1bafe90 873\subsection{What is software quality?}
00aa0588 874The term \emph{software quality} has many meanings. It all depends on the
9a55a5bc 875context we put it in. If we look at it with the eyes of a software developer, it
a1bafe90 876usually means that the software is easily maintainable and testable, or in other
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877words, that it is \emph{well designed}. This often correlates with the
878management scale, where \emph{keeping the schedule} and \emph{customer
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879satisfaction} is at the center. From the customers point of view, in addition to
880good usability, \emph{performance} and \emph{lack of bugs} is always
881appreciated, measurements that are also shared by the software developer. (In
882addition, such things as good documentation could be measured, but this is out
883of the scope of this document.)
9a55a5bc 884
00aa0588 885\subsection{The impact on performance}
9a55a5bc 886\begin{quote}
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887 Refactoring certainly will make software go more slowly\footnote{With todays
888 compiler optimization techniques and performance tuning of e.g. the Java
889virtual machine, the penalties of object creation and method calls are
890debatable.}, but it also makes the software more amenable to performance
891tuning.~\cite[p.~69]{refactoring}
9a55a5bc 892\end{quote}
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893
894\noindent There is a common belief that refactoring compromises performance, due
895to increased degree of indirection and that polymorphism is slower than
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896conditionals.
897
b5c7bb1b 898In a survey, Demeyer\citing{demeyer2002} disproves this view in the case of
a1bafe90 899polymorphism. He did an experiment on, what he calls, ``Transform Self Type
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900Checks'' where you introduce a new polymorphic method and a new class hierarchy
901to get rid of a class' type checking of a ``type attribute``. He uses this kind
902of transformation to represent other ways of replacing conditionals with
903polymorphism as well. The experiment is performed on the C++ programming
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904language and with three different compilers and platforms. Demeyer concludes
905that, with compiler optimization turned on, polymorphism beats middle to large
906sized if-statements and does as well as case-statements. (In accordance with
907his hypothesis, due to similarities between the way C++ handles polymorphism and
908case-statements.)
ee45c41f 909
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910\begin{quote}
911 The interesting thing about performance is that if you analyze most programs,
b5c7bb1b 912 you find that they waste most of their time in a small fraction of the
4cb06723 913 code.~\cite[p.~70]{refactoring}
9a55a5bc 914\end{quote}
9a55a5bc 915
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916\noindent So, although an increased amount of method calls could potentially
917slow down programs, one should avoid premature optimization and sacrificing good
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918design, leaving the performance tuning until after \gloss{profiling} the
919software and having isolated the actual problem areas.
00aa0588 920
0d7fbd88 921\section{Composite refactorings}\label{compositeRefactorings}
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922\todo{motivation, examples, manual vs automated?, what about refactoring in a
923very large code base?}
6065c96c 924Generally, when thinking about refactoring, at the mechanical level, there are
f65da046 925essentially two kinds of refactorings. There are the \emph{primitive}
a1bafe90 926refactorings, and the \emph{composite} refactorings.
6065c96c 927
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928\definition{A \emph{primitive refactoring} is a refactoring that cannot be
929expressed in terms of other refactorings.}
f65da046 930
fe0a4c48 931\noindent Examples are the \refa{Pull Up Field} and \refa{Pull Up
a1bafe90 932Method} refactorings\citing{refactoring}, that move members up in their class
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933hierarchies.
934
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935\definition{A \emph{composite refactoring} is a refactoring that can be
936expressed in terms of two or more other refactorings.}
f65da046 937
fe0a4c48 938\noindent An example of a composite refactoring is the \refa{Extract
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939Superclass} refactoring\citing{refactoring}. In its simplest form, it is composed
940of the previously described primitive refactorings, in addition to the
fe0a4c48 941\refa{Pull Up Constructor Body} refactoring\citing{refactoring}. It works
b5c7bb1b 942by creating an abstract superclass that the target class(es) inherits from, then
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943by applying \refa{Pull Up Field}, \refa{Pull Up Method} and
944\refa{Pull Up Constructor Body} on the members that are to be members of
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945the new superclass. If there are multiple classes in play, their interfaces may
946need to be united with the help of some rename refactorings, before extracting
fe0a4c48 947the superclass. For an overview of the \refa{Extract Superclass}
8b6b22c8 948refactoring, see \myref{fig:extractSuperclass}.
6065c96c 949
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950\begin{figure}[h]
951 \centering
faa9f4f3 952 \includegraphics[angle=270,width=\linewidth]{extractSuperclassItalic.pdf}
f5fb40e4 953 \caption{The Extract Superclass refactoring, with united interfaces.}
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954 \label{fig:extractSuperclass}
955\end{figure}
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956
957\section{Manual vs. automated refactorings}
0d7fbd88 958Refactoring is something every programmer does, even if \heshe does not known
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959the term \emph{refactoring}. Every refinement of source code that does not alter
960the program's behavior is a refactoring. For small refactorings, such as
0d7fbd88 961\ExtractMethod, executing it manually is a manageable task, but is still prone
a1bafe90 962to errors. Getting it right the first time is not easy, considering the method
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963signature and all the other aspects of the refactoring that has to be in place.
964
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965Consider the renaming of classes, methods and fields. For complex programs these
966refactorings are almost impossible to get right. Attacking them with textual
967search and replace, or even regular expressions, will fall short on these tasks.
968Then it is crucial to have proper tool support that can perform them
969automatically. Tools that can parse source code and thus have semantic knowledge
970about which occurrences of which names belong to what construct in the program.
971For even trying to perform one of these complex task manually, one would have to
972be very confident on the existing test suite \see{testing}.
00aa0588 973
19c4f27d 974\section{Correctness of refactorings}\label{correctness}
f65da046 975For automated refactorings to be truly useful, they must show a high degree of
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976behavior preservation. This last sentence might seem obvious, but there are
977examples of refactorings in existing tools that break programs. In an ideal
978world, every automated refactoring would be ``complete'', in the sense that it
979would never break a program. In an ideal world, every program would also be free
980from bugs. In modern IDEs the implemented automated refactorings are working for
981\emph{most} cases, that is enough for making them useful.
982
983I will now present an example of a \emph{corner case} where a program breaks
984when a refactoring is applied. The example shows an \ExtractMethod refactoring
985followed by a \MoveMethod refactoring that breaks a program in both the
fe0a4c48 986\name{Eclipse} and \name{IntelliJ} IDEs\footnote{The \name{NetBeans} IDE handles this
3ab3e132 987 particular situation without altering the program's behavior, mainly because
fe0a4c48 988 its \refa{Move Method} refactoring implementation is a bit flawed in other ways
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989 \see{toolSupport}.}. The target and the destination for the composed
990 refactoring is shown in \myref{lst:correctnessExtractAndMove}. Note that the
991 method \method{m(C c)} of class \type{X} assigns to the field \var{x} of the
992 argument \var{c} that has type \type{C}.
993
994\begin{listing}[h]
995\begin{multicols}{2}
996\begin{minted}[linenos]{java}
997// Refactoring target
ddcea0b5 998public class C {
f5fb40e4 999 public X x = new X();
ee45c41f 1000
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1001 public void f() {
1002 x.m(this);
1003 // Not the same x
1004 x.n();
1005 }
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1006}
1007\end{minted}
ee45c41f 1008
f5fb40e4 1009\columnbreak
ee45c41f 1010
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1011\begin{minted}[]{java}
1012// Method destination
ee45c41f 1013public class X {
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1014 public void m(C c) {
1015 c.x = new X();
1016 // If m is called from
1017 // c, then c.x no longer
1018 // equals 'this'
1019 }
1020 public void n() {}
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1021}
1022\end{minted}
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1023\end{multicols}
1024\caption{The target and the destination for the composition of the Extract
fe0a4c48 1025Method and \refa{Move Method} refactorings.}
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1026\label{lst:correctnessExtractAndMove}
1027\end{listing}
ee45c41f 1028
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1029
1030The refactoring sequence works by extracting line 6 through 8 from the original
3510e539 1031class \type{C} into a method \method{f} with the statements from those lines as
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1032its method body (but with the comment left out, since it will no longer hold any
1033meaning). The method is then moved to the class \type{X}. The result is shown
1034in \myref{lst:correctnessExtractAndMoveResult}.
ee45c41f 1035
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1036Before the refactoring, the methods \method{m} and \method{n} of class \type{X}
1037are called on different object instances (see line 6 and 8 of the original class
1038\type{C} in \cref{lst:correctnessExtractAndMove}). After the refactoring, they
1039are called on the same object, and the statement on line
10403 of class \type{X} (in \cref{lst:correctnessExtractAndMoveResult}) no longer
1041 has the desired effect in our example. The method \method{f} of class \type{C}
1042 is now calling the method \method{f} of class \type{X} (see line 5 of class
1043 \type{C} in \cref{lst:correctnessExtractAndMoveResult}), and the program now
1044 behaves different than before.
1045
1046\begin{listing}[h]
1047\begin{multicols}{2}
1048\begin{minted}[linenos]{java}
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1049public class C {
1050 public X x = new X();
1051
1052 public void f() {
1053 x.f(this);
1054 }
1055}
1056\end{minted}
1057
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1058\columnbreak
1059
1060\begin{minted}[linenos]{java}
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1061public class X {
1062 public void m(C c) {
1063 c.x = new X();
1064 }
1065 public void n() {}
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1066 // Extracted and
1067 // moved method
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1068 public void f(C c) {
1069 m(c);
1070 n();
1071 }
1072}
1073\end{minted}
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1074\end{multicols}
1075\caption{The result of the composed refactoring.}
1076\label{lst:correctnessExtractAndMoveResult}
1077\end{listing}
ddcea0b5 1078
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1079The bug introduced in the previous example is of such a nature\footnote{Caused
1080 by aliasing. See \url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliasing_(computing)}}
1081 that it is very difficult to spot if the refactored code is not covered by
1082 tests. It does not generate compilation errors, and will thus only result in
1083 a runtime error or corrupted data, which might be hard to detect.
19c4f27d 1084
29f39f29 1085\section{Refactoring and the importance of testing}\label{testing}
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1086\begin{quote}
1087 If you want to refactor, the essential precondition is having solid
1088 tests.\citing{refactoring}
1089\end{quote}
1090
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1091When refactoring, there are roughly three classes of errors that can be made.
1092The first class of errors are the ones that make the code unable to compile.
1093These \emph{compile-time} errors are of the nicer kind. They flash up at the
1094moment they are made (at least when using an IDE), and are usually easy to fix.
1095The second class are the \emph{runtime} errors. Although they take a bit longer
1096to surface, they usually manifest after some time in an illegal argument
1097exception, null pointer exception or similar during the program execution.
1098These kind of errors are a bit harder to handle, but at least they will show,
1099eventually. Then there are the \emph{behavior-changing} errors. These errors are
1100of the worst kind. They do not show up during compilation and they do not turn
1101on a blinking red light during runtime either. The program can seem to work
1102perfectly fine with them in play, but the business logic can be damaged in ways
1103that will only show up over time.
1104
1105For discovering runtime errors and behavior changes when refactoring, it is
1106essential to have good test coverage. Testing in this context means writing
1107automated tests. Manual testing may have its uses, but when refactoring, it is
1108automated unit testing that dominate. For discovering behavior changes it is
1109especially important to have tests that cover potential problems, since these
1110kind of errors does not reveal themselves.
1111
1112Unit testing is not a way to \emph{prove} that a program is correct, but it is a
3ab3e132 1113way to make you confident that it \emph{probably} works as desired. In the
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1114context of test driven development (commonly known as TDD), the tests are even a
1115way to define how the program is \emph{supposed} to work. It is then, by
1116definition, working if the tests are passing.
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1117
1118If the test coverage for a code base is perfect, then it should, theoretically,
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1119be risk-free to perform refactorings on it. This is why automated tests and
1120refactoring are such a great match.
f65da046 1121
b5d53f51 1122\subsection{Testing the code from correctness section}
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1123The worst thing that can happen when refactoring is to introduce changes to the
1124behavior of a program, as in the example on \myref{correctness}. This example
1125may be trivial, but the essence is clear. The only problem with the example is
1126that it is not clear how to create automated tests for it, without changing it
1127in intrusive ways.
1128
20bcc7bf 1129Unit tests, as they are known from the different \glosspl{xUnit} around, are
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1130only suitable to test the \emph{result} of isolated operations. They can not
1131easily (if at all) observe the \emph{history} of a program.
b5d53f51 1132
a13e5650 1133This problem is still open.
116805bf 1134
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1135\todoin{Write?}
1136\begin{comment}
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1137
1138Assuming a sequential (non-concurrent) program:
1139
1140\begin{minted}{java}
1141tracematch (C c, X x) {
1142 sym m before:
1143 call(* X.m(C)) && args(c) && cflow(within(C));
1144 sym n before:
1145 call(* X.n()) && target(x) && cflow(within(C));
1146 sym setCx after:
1147 set(C.x) && target(c) && !cflow(m);
1148
1149 m n
1150
1151 { assert x == c.x; }
1152}
1153\end{minted}
1154
1155%\begin{minted}{java}
1156%tracematch (X x1, X x2) {
1157% sym m before:
1158% call(* X.m(C)) && target(x1);
1159% sym n before:
1160% call(* X.n()) && target(x2);
1161% sym setX after:
1162% set(C.x) && !cflow(m) && !cflow(n);
1163%
1164% m n
1165%
1166% { assert x1 != x2; }
1167%}
1168%\end{minted}
a13e5650 1169\end{comment}
116805bf 1170
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1171
1172\chapter{The Project}
1173
1174\todoin{Moved from introduction to here. Rewrite and make problem statement from
1175it:}
a13e5650 1176The aim of this master project will be to investigate the relationship between a
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1177composite refactoring composed of the \ExtractMethod and \MoveMethod
1178refactorings, and its impact on one or more software metrics.
1179
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1180The composition of the \ExtractMethod and \MoveMethod refactorings springs
1181naturally out of the need to move procedures closer to the data they manipulate.
1182This composed refactoring is not well described in the literature, but it is
1183implemented in at least one tool called
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1184\name{CodeRush}\footnote{\url{https://help.devexpress.com/\#CodeRush/CustomDocument3519}},
1185that is an extension for \name{MS Visual
b5d53f51 1186Studio}\footnote{\url{http://www.visualstudio.com/}}. In CodeRush it is called
fe0a4c48 1187\refa{Extract Method to
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1188Type}\footnote{\url{https://help.devexpress.com/\#CodeRush/CustomDocument6710}},
1189but I choose to call it \ExtractAndMoveMethod, since I feel it better
1190communicates which primitive refactorings it is composed of.
1191
fe0a4c48 1192For the metrics, I will at least measure the \metr{Coupling between object
b5d53f51 1193classes} (CBO) metric that is described by Chidamber and Kemerer in their
fe0a4c48 1194article \tit{A Metrics Suite for Object Oriented
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1195Design}\citing{metricsSuite1994}.
1196
1197The project will then consist in implementing the \ExtractAndMoveMethod
1198refactoring, as well as executing it over a larger code base. Then the effect of
1199the change must be measured by calculating the chosen software metrics both
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1200before and after the execution. To be able to execute the refactoring
1201automatically I have to make it analyze code to determine the best selections to
1202extract into new methods.
3b7c1d90 1203\section{The problem statement}
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1204\todoin{write/move}
1205
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1206\section{The refactorings}
1207
1208\subsection{The Extract Method refactoring}
1209The \refa{Extract Method} refactoring is used to extract a fragment of code
1210from its context and into a new method. A call to the new method is inlined
1211where the fragment was before. It is used to break code into logical units,
1212with names that explain their purpose
1213\todoin{Refine}
1214\missingfigure{Explaining the Extract Method refactoring}
1215
1216\subsection{The Move Method refactoring}
1217The \refa{Move Method} refactoring is used to move a method from one class to
1218another. This is useful if the method is using more features of another class
1219than of the class which it is currently defined.
1220\todoin{Refine}
1221\missingfigure{Explaining the Move Method refactoring}
1222
1223\subsection{The Extract and Move Method refactoring}
1224\todoin{Write}
1225\missingfigure{Explaining the Extract and Move Method refactoring}
1226
1227
3f929fcc 1228\section{Choosing the target language}
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1229Choosing which programming language the code that shall be manipulated shall be
1230written in, is not a very difficult task. We choose to limit the possible
1231languages to the object-oriented programming languages, since most of the
1232terminology and literature regarding refactoring comes from the world of
1233object-oriented programming. In addition, the language must have existing tool
1234support for refactoring.
1235
fe0a4c48 1236The \name{Java} programming language\footnote{\url{https://www.java.com/}} is
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1237the dominating language when it comes to example code in the literature of
1238refactoring, and is thus a natural choice. Java is perhaps, currently the most
fe0a4c48 1239influential programming language in the world, with its \name{Java Virtual
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1240Machine} that runs on all of the most popular architectures and also supports
1241dozens of other programming languages\footnote{They compile to java bytecode.},
fe0a4c48 1242with \name{Scala}, \name{Clojure} and \name{Groovy} as the most prominent ones.
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1243Java is currently the language that every other programming language is compared
1244against. It is also the primary programming language for the author of this
1245thesis.
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1246
1247\section{Choosing the tools}
3ab3e132 1248When choosing a tool for manipulating Java, there are certain criteria that
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1249have to be met. First of all, the tool should have some existing refactoring
1250support that this thesis can build upon. Secondly it should provide some kind of
1251framework for parsing and analyzing Java source code. Third, it should itself be
1252open source. This is both because of the need to be able to browse the code for
1253the existing refactorings that is contained in the tool, and also because open
1254source projects hold value in them selves. Another important aspect to consider
1255is that open source projects of a certain size, usually has large communities of
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1256people connected to them, that are committed to answering questions regarding the
1257use and misuse of the products, that to a large degree is made by the community
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1258itself.
1259
3ab3e132 1260There is a certain class of tools that meet these criteria, namely the class of
3f929fcc 1261\emph{IDEs}\footnote{\emph{Integrated Development Environment}}. These are
3ab3e132 1262programs that is meant to support the whole production cycle of a computer
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1263program, and the most popular IDEs that support Java, generally have quite good
1264refactoring support.
1265
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1266The main contenders for this thesis is the \name{Eclipse IDE}, with the
1267\name{Java development tools} (JDT), the \name{IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition}
1268and the \name{NetBeans IDE} \see{toolSupport}. \name{Eclipse} and
1269\name{NetBeans} are both free, open source and community driven, while the
1270\name{IntelliJ IDEA} has an open sourced community edition that is free of
1271charge, but also offer an \name{Ultimate Edition} with an extended set of
1272features, at additional cost. All three IDEs supports adding plugins to extend
1273their functionality and tools that can be used to parse and analyze Java source
1274code. But one of the IDEs stand out as a favorite, and that is the \name{Eclipse
1275IDE}. This is the most popular\citing{javaReport2011} among them and seems to be
1276de facto standard IDE for Java development regardless of platform.
4e135659 1277
a5317dcf 1278\section{Source code organization}
2bb37e5e 1279All the parts of this master project is under version control with
fe0a4c48 1280\name{Git}\footnote{\url{http://git-scm.com/}}.
2bb37e5e 1281
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1282The software written is organized as some \name{Eclipse} plugins. Writing a plugin is
1283the natural way to utilize the API of \name{Eclipse}. This also makes it possible to
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1284provide a user interface to manually run operations on selections in program
1285source code or whole projects/packages.
1286
fe0a4c48 1287When writing a plugin in \name{Eclipse}, one has access to resources such as the
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1288current workspace, the open editor and the current selection.
1289
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1290The thesis work is contained in the following Eclipse projects:
1291
1292\begin{description}
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1293 \item[no.uio.ifi.refaktor] \hfill \\ This is the main Eclipse plugin
1294 project, and contains all of the business logic for the plugin.
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1295
1296 \item[no.uio.ifi.refaktor.tests] \hfill \\
1297 This project contains the tests for the main plugin.
1298
1299 \item[no.uio.ifi.refaktor.examples] \hfill \\
1300 Contains example code used in testing. It also contains code for managing
1301 this example code, such as creating an Eclipse project from it before a test
1302 run.
1303
1304 \item[no.uio.ifi.refaktor.benchmark] \hfill \\
1305 This project contains code for running search based versions of the
1306 composite refactoring over selected Eclipse projects.
1307
1308 \item[no.uio.ifi.refaktor.releng] \hfill \\
1309 Contains the rmap, queries and target definitions needed by by Buckminster
1310 on the Jenkins continuous integration server.
1311
1312\end{description}
1313
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1314\subsection{The no.uio.ifi.refaktor project}
1315
1316\subsubsection{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze}
1317This package, and its subpackages, contains code that is used for analyzing Java
1318source code. The most important subpackages are presented below.
1319
1320\begin{description}
1321 \item[no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.analyzers] \hfill \\
1322 This package contains source code analyzers. These are usually responsible
1323 for analyzing text selections or running specialized analyzers for different
1324 kinds of entities. Their structure are often hierarchical. This means that
1325 you have an analyzer for text selections, that in turn is utilized by an
1326 analyzer that analyzes all the selections of a method. Then there are
1327 analyzers for analyzing all the methods of a type, all the types of a
1328 compilation unit, all the compilation units of a package, and, at last, all
1329 of the packages in a project.
1330
1331 \item[no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.checkers] \hfill \\
1332 A package containing checkers. The checkers are classes used to validate
1333 that a selection can be further analyzed and chosen as a candidate for a
1334 refactoring. Invalidating properties can be such as usage of inner classes
1335 or the need for multiple return values.
1336
1337 \item[no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.collectors] \hfill \\
1338 This package contains the property collectors. Collectors are used to gather
1339 properties from a text selection. This is mostly properties regarding
1340 referenced names and their occurrences. It is these properties that makes up
1341 the basis for finding the best candidates for a refactoring.
1342\end{description}
1343
1344\subsubsection{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change}
1345This package, and its subpackages, contains functionality for manipulate source
1346code.
1347
1348\begin{description}
1349 \item[no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.changers] \hfill \\
1350 This package contains source code changers. They are used to glue together
1351 the analysis of source code and the actual execution of the changes.
1352
1353 \item[no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.executors] \hfill \\
1354 The executors that are responsible for making concrete changes are found in
1355 this package. They are mostly used to create and execute one or more Eclipse
1356 refactorings.
1357
1358 \item[no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.processors] \hfill \\
1359 Contains a refactoring processor for the \MoveMethod refactoring. The code
1360 is stolen and modified to fix a bug. The related bug is described in
1361 \myref{eclipse_bug_429416}.
1362
1363\end{description}
1364
1365\subsubsection{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.handlers}
1366This package contains handlers for the commands defined in the plugin manifest.
1367
1368\subsubsection{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.prefix}
1369This package contains the \type{Prefix} type that is the data representation of
1370the prefixes found by the \type{PrefixesCollector}. It also contains the prefix
1371set for storing and working with prefixes.
1372
1373\subsubsection{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.statistics}
1374The package contains statistics functionality. Its heart is the statistics
1375aspect that is responsible for gathering statistics during the execution of the
1376\ExtractAndMoveMethod refactoring.
1377
1378\begin{description}
1379 \item[no.uio.ifi.refaktor.statistics.reports] \hfill \\
1380 This package contains a simple framework for generating reports from the
1381 statistics data generated by the aspect. Currently, the only available
1382 report type is a simple text report.
1383
1384\end{description}
1385
1386
1387\subsubsection{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.textselection}
1388This package contains the two custom text selections that are used extensively
1389throughout the project. One of them is just a subclass of the other, to support
1390the use of the memento pattern to optimize the memory usage during benchmarking.
1391
1392\subsubsection{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.debugging}
1393The package contains a debug utility class. I addition to this, the package
1394\code{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.utils.aspects} contains a couple of aspects used for
1395debugging purposes.
1396
1397\subsubsection{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.utils}
1398Utility package that contains all the functionality that has to do with parsing
1399of source code. It also has utility classes for looking up handles to methods
1400and types et cetera.
1401
1402\begin{description}
1403 \item[no.uio.ifi.refaktor.utils.caching] \hfill \\
1404 This package contains the caching manager for compilation units, along with
1405 classes for different caching strategies.
1406
1407 \item[no.uio.ifi.refaktor.utils.nullobjects] \hfill \\
1408 Contains classes for creating different null objects. Most of the classes is
1409 used to represent null objects of different handle types. These null objects
1410 are returned from various utility classes instead of returning a \var{null}
1411 value when other values are not available.
1412
1413\end{description}
1414
1415
a5317dcf 1416
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1417\section{Continuous integration}
1418The continuous integration server
fe0a4c48 1419\name{Jenkins}\footnote{\url{http://jenkins-ci.org/}} has been set up for the
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1420project\footnote{A work mostly done by the supervisor.}. It is used as a way to
1421run tests and perform code coverage analysis.
1422
fe0a4c48 1423To be able to build the \name{Eclipse} plugins and run tests for them with Jenkins, the
77c5e0bc 1424component assembly project
fe0a4c48 1425\name{Buckminster}\footnote{\url{http://www.eclipse.org/buckminster/}} is used,
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1426through its plugin for Jenkins. Buckminster provides for a way to specify the
1427resources needed for building a project and where and how to find them.
1428Buckminster also handles the setup of a target environment to run the tests in.
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1429All this is needed because the code to build depends on an \name{Eclipse}
1430installation with various plugins.
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1431
1432\subsection{Problems with AspectJ}
1433The Buckminster build worked fine until introducing AspectJ into the project.
1434When building projects using AspectJ, there are some additional steps that needs
1435to be performed. First of all, the aspects themselves must be compiled. Then the
1436aspects needs to be woven with the classes they affect. This demands a process
1437that does multiple passes over the source code.
1438
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1439When using AspectJ with \name{Eclipse}, the specialized compilation and the
1440weaving can be handled by the \name{AspectJ Development
77c5e0bc 1441Tools}\footnote{\url{https://www.eclipse.org/ajdt/}}. This works all fine, but
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1442it complicates things when trying to build a project depending on \name{Eclipse}
1443plugins outside of \name{Eclipse}. There is supposed to be a way to specify a
1444compiler adapter for javac, together with the file extensions for the file types
1445it shall operate. The AspectJ compiler adapter is called
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1446\typewithref{org.aspectj.tools.ant.taskdefs}{Ajc11CompilerAdapter}, and it works
1447with files that has the extensions \code{*.java} and \code{*.aj}. I tried to
1448setup this in the build properties file for the project containing the aspects,
1449but to no avail. The project containing the aspects does not seem to be built at
1450all, and the projects that depends on it complains that they cannot find certain
1451classes.
1452
fe0a4c48 1453I then managed to write an \name{Ant}\footnote{\url{https://ant.apache.org/}}
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1454build file that utilizes the AspectJ compiler adapter, for the
1455\code{no.uio.ifi.refaktor} plugin. The problem was then that it could no longer
1456take advantage of the environment set up by Buckminster. The solution to this
1457particular problem was of a ``hacky'' nature. It involves exporting the plugin
1458dependencies for the project to an Ant build file, and copy the exported path
1459into the existing build script. But then the Ant script needs to know where the
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1460local \name{Eclipse} installation is located. This is no problem when building
1461on a local machine, but to utilize the setup done by Buckminster is a problem
1462still unsolved. To get the classpath for the build setup correctly, and here
1463comes the most ``hacky'' part of the solution, the Ant script has a target for
1464copying the classpath elements into a directory relative to the project
1465directory and checking it into Git. When no \code{ECLIPSE\_HOME} property is set
1466while running Ant, the script uses the copied plugins instead of the ones
1467provided by the \name{Eclipse} installation when building the project. This
1468obviously creates some problems with maintaining the list of dependencies in the
1469Ant file, as well as remembering to copy the plugins every time the list of
1470dependencies change.
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1471
1472The Ant script described above is run by Jenkins before the Buckminster setup
1473and build. When setup like this, the Buckminster build succeeds for the projects
1474not using AspectJ, and the tests are run as normal. This is all good, but it
1475feels a little scary, since the reason for Buckminster not working with AspectJ
1476is still unknown.
1477
1478The problems with building with AspectJ on the Jenkins server lasted for a
1479while, before they were solved. This is reflected in the ``Test Result Trend''
1480and ``Code Coverage Trend'' reported by Jenkins.
0bd768f3 1481
3b7c1d90 1482
a5317dcf 1483
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1484\chapter{Refactorings in Eclipse JDT: Design, Shortcomings and Wishful
1485Thinking}\label{ch:jdt_refactorings}
1486
1487This chapter will deal with some of the design behind refactoring support in
fe0a4c48 1488\name{Eclipse}, and the JDT in specific. After which it will follow a section about
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1489shortcomings of the refactoring API in terms of composition of refactorings. The
1490chapter will be concluded with a section telling some of the ways the
1491implementation of refactorings in the JDT could have worked to facilitate
1492composition of refactorings.
055dca93 1493
b0e80574 1494\section{Design}
fe0a4c48 1495The refactoring world of \name{Eclipse} can in general be separated into two parts: The
b289552b 1496language independent part and the part written for a specific programming
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1497language -- the language that is the target of the supported refactorings.
1498\todo{What about the language specific part?}
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1499
1500\subsection{The Language Toolkit}
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1501The Language Toolkit\footnote{The content of this section is a mixture of
1502 written material from
1503 \url{https://www.eclipse.org/articles/Article-LTK/ltk.html} and
1504 \url{http://www.eclipse.org/articles/article.php?file=Article-Unleashing-the-Power-of-Refactoring/index.html},
1505the LTK source code and my own memory.}, or LTK for short, is the framework that
fe0a4c48 1506is used to implement refactorings in \name{Eclipse}. It is language independent and
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1507provides the abstractions of a refactoring and the change it generates, in the
1508form of the classes \typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring}{Refactoring}
1509and \typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring}{Change}.
1510
1511There are also parts of the LTK that is concerned with user interaction, but
1512they will not be discussed here, since they are of little value to us and our
1513use of the framework. We are primarily interested in the parts that can be
1514automated.
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1515
1516\subsubsection{The Refactoring Class}
1517The abstract class \type{Refactoring} is the core of the LTK framework. Every
1518refactoring that is going to be supported by the LTK have to end up creating an
1519instance of one of its subclasses. The main responsibilities of subclasses of
1520\type{Refactoring} is to implement template methods for condition checking
1521(\methodwithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.Refactoring}{checkInitialConditions}
1522and
1523\methodwithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.Refactoring}{checkFinalConditions}),
1524in addition to the
1525\methodwithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.Refactoring}{createChange}
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1526method that creates and returns an instance of the \type{Change} class.
1527
1528If the refactoring shall support that others participate in it when it is
1529executed, the refactoring has to be a processor-based
1530refactoring\typeref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.participants.ProcessorBasedRefactoring}.
1531It then delegates to its given
1532\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.participants}{RefactoringProcessor}
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1533for condition checking and change creation. Participating in a refactoring can
1534be useful in cases where the changes done to programming source code affects
1535other related resources in the workspace. This can be names or paths in
1536configuration files, or maybe one would like to perform additional logging of
1537changes done in the workspace.
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1538
1539\subsubsection{The Change Class}
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1540This class is the base class for objects that is responsible for performing the
1541actual workspace transformations in a refactoring. The main responsibilities for
1542its subclasses is to implement the
1543\methodwithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.Change}{perform} and
1544\methodwithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.Change}{isValid} methods. The
1545\method{isValid} method verifies that the change object is valid and thus can be
1546executed by calling its \method{perform} method. The \method{perform} method
1547performs the desired change and returns an undo change that can be executed to
1548reverse the effect of the transformation done by its originating change object.
1549
61420ef7 1550\subsubsection{Executing a Refactoring}\label{executing_refactoring}
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1551The life cycle of a refactoring generally follows two steps after creation:
1552condition checking and change creation. By letting the refactoring object be
1553handled by a
1554\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring}{CheckConditionsOperation} that
1555in turn is handled by a
1556\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring}{CreateChangeOperation}, it is
1557assured that the change creation process is managed in a proper manner.
1558
1559The actual execution of a change object has to follow a detailed life cycle.
1560This life cycle is honored if the \type{CreateChangeOperation} is handled by a
1561\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring}{PerformChangeOperation}. If also
1562an undo manager\typeref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.IUndoManager} is set
1563for the \type{PerformChangeOperation}, the undo change is added into the undo
1564history.
055dca93 1565
b0e80574 1566\section{Shortcomings}
80663734 1567This section is introduced naturally with a conclusion: The JDT refactoring
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1568implementation does not facilitate composition of refactorings.
1569\todo{refine}This section will try to explain why, and also identify other
1570shortcomings of both the usability and the readability of the JDT refactoring
1571source code.
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1572
1573I will begin at the end and work my way toward the composition part of this
1574section.
1575
5837a41f 1576\subsection{Absence of Generics in Eclipse Source Code}
80663734 1577This section is not only concerning the JDT refactoring API, but also large
fe0a4c48 1578quantities of the \name{Eclipse} source code. The code shows a striking absence of the
80663734 1579Java language feature of generics. It is hard to read a class' interface when
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1580methods return objects or takes parameters of raw types such as \type{List} or
1581\type{Map}. This sometimes results in having to read a lot of source code to
1582understand what is going on, instead of relying on the available interfaces. In
1583addition, it results in a lot of ugly code, making the use of typecasting more
1584of a rule than an exception.
1585
1586\subsection{Composite Refactorings Will Not Appear as Atomic Actions}
1587
1588\subsubsection{Missing Flexibility from JDT Refactorings}
1589The JDT refactorings are not made with composition of refactorings in mind. When
1590a JDT refactoring is executed, it assumes that all conditions for it to be
1326eec6 1591applied successfully can be found by reading source files that have been
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1592persisted to disk. They can only operate on the actual source material, and not
1593(in-memory) copies thereof. This constitutes a major disadvantage when trying to
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1594compose refactorings, since if an exception occurs in the middle of a sequence
1595of refactorings, it can leave the project in a state where the composite
1596refactoring was only partially executed. It makes it hard to discard the changes
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1597done without monitoring and consulting the undo manager, an approach that is not
1598bullet proof.
1599
1600\subsubsection{Broken Undo History}
1601When designing a composed refactoring that is to be performed as a sequence of
1602refactorings, you would like it to appear as a single change to the workspace.
1603This implies that you would also like to be able to undo all the changes done by
1604the refactoring in a single step. This is not the way it appears when a sequence
1605of JDT refactorings is executed. It leaves the undo history filled up with
1606individual undo actions corresponding to every single JDT refactoring in the
fe0a4c48 1607sequence. This problem is not trivial to handle in \name{Eclipse}
e123ab03 1608\see{hacking_undo_history}.
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1609
1610\section{Wishful Thinking}
3727b75b 1611\todoin{???}
80663734 1612
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1613\chapter{Composite Refactorings in Eclipse}
1614
1615\section{A Simple Ad Hoc Model}
fe0a4c48 1616As pointed out in \myref{ch:jdt_refactorings}, the \name{Eclipse} JDT refactoring model
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1617is not very well suited for making composite refactorings. Therefore a simple
1618model using changer objects (of type \type{RefaktorChanger}) is used as an
fe0a4c48 1619abstraction layer on top of the existing \name{Eclipse} refactorings, instead of
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1620extending the \typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring}{Refactoring} class.
1621
1622The use of an additional abstraction layer is a deliberate choice. It is due to
1623the problem of creating a composite
1624\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring}{Change} that can handle text
1625changes that interfere with each other. Thus, a \type{RefaktorChanger} may, or
1626may not, take advantage of one or more existing refactorings, but it is always
1627intended to make a change to the workspace.
1628
1629\subsection{A typical \type{RefaktorChanger}}
1630The typical refaktor changer class has two responsibilities, checking
1631preconditions and executing the requested changes. This is not too different
1632from the responsibilities of an LTK refactoring, with the distinction that a
1633refaktor changer also executes the change, while an LTK refactoring is only
1634responsible for creating the object that can later be used to do the job.
1635
1636Checking of preconditions is typically done by an
1637\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.analyzers}{Analyzer}. If the
1638preconditions validate, the upcoming changes are executed by an
1639\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.executors}{Executor}.
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1640
1641\section{The Extract and Move Method Refactoring}
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1642%The Extract and Move Method Refactoring is implemented mainly using these
1643%classes:
1644%\begin{itemize}
1645% \item \type{ExtractAndMoveMethodChanger}
1646% \item \type{ExtractAndMoveMethodPrefixesExtractor}
1647% \item \type{Prefix}
1648% \item \type{PrefixSet}
1649%\end{itemize}
1650
1651\subsection{The Building Blocks}
1652This is a composite refactoring, and hence is built up using several primitive
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1653refactorings. These basic building blocks are, as its name implies, the
1654\ExtractMethod refactoring\citing{refactoring} and the \MoveMethod
fe0a4c48 1655refactoring\citing{refactoring}. In \name{Eclipse}, the implementations of these
b5c7bb1b 1656refactorings are found in the classes
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1657\typewithref{org.eclipse.jdt.internal.corext.refactoring.code}{ExtractMethodRefactoring}
1658and
1659\typewithref{org.eclipse.jdt.internal.corext.refactoring.structure}{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor},
1660where the last class is designed to be used together with the processor-based
1661\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.participants}{MoveRefactoring}.
1662
1663\subsubsection{The ExtractMethodRefactoring Class}
1664This class is quite simple in its use. The only parameters it requires for
1665construction is a compilation
1666unit\typeref{org.eclipse.jdt.core.ICompilationUnit}, the offset into the source
1667code where the extraction shall start, and the length of the source to be
1668extracted. Then you have to set the method name for the new method together with
50954fde 1669its visibility and some not so interesting parameters.
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1670
1671\subsubsection{The MoveInstanceMethodProcessor Class}
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1672For the \refa{Move Method}, the processor requires a little more advanced input than
1673the class for the \refa{Extract Method}. For construction it requires a method
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1674handle\typeref{org.eclipse.jdt.core.IMethod} for the method that is to be moved.
1675Then the target for the move have to be supplied as the variable binding from a
1676chosen variable declaration. In addition to this, one have to set some
1677parameters regarding setters/getters, as well as delegation.
61420ef7 1678
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1679To make a working refactoring from the processor, one have to create a
1680\type{MoveRefactoring} with it.
b0e80574 1681
356782a0 1682\subsection{The ExtractAndMoveMethodChanger}
50954fde 1683
61420ef7 1684The \typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.changers}{ExtractAndMoveMethodChanger}
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1685class is a subclass of the class
1686\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.changers}{RefaktorChanger}. It is responsible
1687for analyzing and finding the best target for, and also executing, a composition
fe0a4c48 1688of the \refa{Extract Method} and \refa{Move Method} refactorings. This particular changer is
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1689the one of my changers that is closest to being a true LTK refactoring. It can
1690be reworked to be one if the problems with overlapping changes are resolved. The
1691changer requires a text selection and the name of the new method, or else a
1692method name will be generated. The selection has to be of the type
1693\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.utils}{CompilationUnitTextSelection}. This
1694class is a custom extension to
1695\typewithref{org.eclipse.jface.text}{TextSelection}, that in addition to the
1696basic offset, length and similar methods, also carry an instance of the
1697underlying compilation unit handle for the selection.
1698
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1699\subsubsection{The
1700 \type{ExtractAndMoveMethodAnalyzer}}\label{extractAndMoveMethodAnalyzer}
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1701The analysis and precondition checking is done by the
1702\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.analyzers}{ExtractAnd\-MoveMethodAnalyzer}.
1703First is check whether the selection is a valid selection or not, with respect
1704to statement boundaries and that it actually contains any selections. Then it
1705checks the legality of both extracting the selection and also moving it to
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1706another class. This checking of is performed by a range of checkers
1707\see{checkers}. If the selection is approved as legal, it is analyzed to find
1708the presumably best target to move the extracted method to.
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1709
1710For finding the best suitable target the analyzer is using a
1711\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.collectors}{PrefixesCollector} that
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1712collects all the possible candidate targets for the refactoring. All the
1713non-candidates is found by an
50954fde 1714\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.collectors}{UnfixesCollector} that
b8fce5af 1715collects all the targets that will give some kind of error if used. (For
3ab3e132 1716details about the property collectors, see \myref{propertyCollectors}.) All
b8fce5af 1717prefixes (and unfixes) are represented by a
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1718\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.extractors}{Prefix}, and they are collected
1719into sets of prefixes. The safe prefixes is found by subtracting from the set of
b8fce5af 1720candidate prefixes the prefixes that is enclosing any of the unfixes. A prefix
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1721is enclosing an unfix if the unfix is in the set of its sub-prefixes. As an
1722example, \texttt{``a.b''} is enclosing \texttt{``a''}, as is \texttt{``a''}. The
1723safe prefixes is unified in a \type{PrefixSet}. If a prefix has only one
1724occurrence, and is a simple expression, it is considered unsuitable as a move
1725target. This occurs in statements such as \texttt{``a.foo()''}. For such
1726statements it bares no meaning to extract and move them. It only generates an
1727extra method and the calling of it.
50954fde 1728
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1729The most suitable target for the refactoring is found by finding the prefix with
1730the most occurrences. If two prefixes have the same occurrence count, but they
1731differ in length, the longest of them is chosen.
1732
0f6e45f8 1733\todoin{Clean up sections/subsections.}
50954fde 1734
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1735\subsubsection{The
1736 \type{ExtractAndMoveMethodExecutor}}\label{extractAndMoveMethodExecutor}
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1737If the analysis finds a possible target for the composite refactoring, it is
1738executed by an
1739\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.executors}{ExtractAndMoveMethodExecutor}.
1740It is composed of the two executors known as
1741\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.executors}{ExtractMethodRefactoringExecutor}
1742and
1743\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.executors}{MoveMethodRefactoringExecutor}.
1744The \type{ExtractAndMoveMethodExecutor} is responsible for gluing the two
3727b75b 1745together by feeding the \type{MoveMethod\-RefactoringExecutor} with the
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1746resources needed after executing the extract method refactoring.
1747%\see{postExtractExecution}.
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1748
1749\subsubsection{The \type{ExtractMethodRefactoringExecutor}}
1750This executor is responsible for creating and executing an instance of the
1751\type{ExtractMethodRefactoring} class. It is also responsible for collecting
1752some post execution resources that can be used to find the method handle for the
1753extracted method, as well as information about its parameters, including the
1754variable they originated from.
1755
1756\subsubsection{The \type{MoveMethodRefactoringExecutor}}
1757This executor is responsible for creating and executing an instance of the
1758\type{MoveRefactoring}. The move refactoring is a processor-based refactoring,
fe0a4c48 1759and for the \refa{Move Method} refactoring it is the \type{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor}
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1760that is used.
1761
1762The handle for the method to be moved is found on the basis of the information
fe0a4c48 1763gathered after the execution of the \refa{Extract Method} refactoring. The only
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1764information the \type{ExtractMethodRefactoring} is sharing after its execution,
1765regarding find the method handle, is the textual representation of the new
1766method signature. Therefore it must be parsed, the strings for types of the
1767parameters must be found and translated to a form that can be used to look up
1768the method handle from its type handle. They have to be on the unresolved
1769form.\todo{Elaborate?} The name for the type is found from the original
1770selection, since an extracted method must end up in the same type as the
1771originating method.
1772
fe0a4c48 1773When analyzing a selection prior to performing the \refa{Extract Method} refactoring, a
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1774target is chosen. It has to be a variable binding, so it is either a field or a
1775local variable/parameter. If the target is a field, it can be used with the
1776\type{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor} as it is, since the extracted method still is
1777in its scope. But if the target is local to the originating method, the target
1778that is to be used for the processor must be among its parameters. Thus the
1779target must be found among the extracted method's parameters. This is done by
1780finding the parameter information object that corresponds to the parameter that
1781was declared on basis of the original target's variable when the method was
1782extracted. (The extracted method must take one such parameter for each local
1783variable that is declared outside the selection that is extracted.) To match the
1784original target with the correct parameter information object, the key for the
1785information object is compared to the key from the original target's binding.
1786The source code must then be parsed to find the method declaration for the
1787extracted method. The new target must be found by searching through the
1788parameters of the declaration and choose the one that has the same type as the
1789old binding from the parameter information object, as well as the same name that
1790is provided by the parameter information object.
1791
1792
356782a0
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1793\subsection{The
1794SearchBasedExtractAndMoveMethodChanger}\label{searchBasedExtractAndMoveMethodChanger}
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1795The
1796\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.changers}{SearchBasedExtractAndMoveMethodChanger}
1797is a changer whose purpose is to automatically analyze a method, and execute the
1798\ExtractAndMoveMethod refactoring on it if it is a suitable candidate for the
1799refactoring.
1800
1801First, the \typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.analyzers}{SearchBasedExtractAndMoveMethodAnalyzer} is used
1802to analyze the method. If the method is found to be a candidate, the result from
1803the analysis is fed to the \type{ExtractAndMoveMethodExecutor}, whose job is to
1804execute the refactoring \see{extractAndMoveMethodExecutor}.
1805
1806\subsubsection{The SearchBasedExtractAndMoveMethodAnalyzer}
1807This analyzer is responsible for analyzing all the possible text selections of a
1808method and then choose the best result out of the analysis results that is, by
1809the analyzer, considered to be the potential candidates for the Extract and Move
1810Method refactoring.
1811
1812Before the analyzer is able to work with the text selections of a method, it
1813needs to generate them. To do this, it parses the method to obtain a
1814\type{MethodDeclaration} for it \see{astEclipse}. Then there is a statement
1815lists creator that creates statements lists of the different groups of
1816statements in the body of the method declaration. A text selections generator
1817generates text selections of all the statement lists for the analyzer to work
1818with.
1819
1820\paragraph{The statement lists creator}
1821is responsible for generating lists of statements for all the possible levels of
1822statements in the method. The statement lists creator is implemented as an AST
1823visitor \see{astVisitor}. It generates lists of statements by visiting all the
1824blocks in the method declaration and stores their statements in a collection of
1825statement lists. In addition, it visits all of the other statements that can
1826have a statement as a child, such as the different control structures and the
1827labeled statement.
1828
1829The switch statement is the only kind of statement that is not straight forward
1830to obtain the child statements from. It stores all of its children in a flat
1831list. Its switch case statements are included in this list. This means that
1832there are potential statement lists between all of these case statements. The
1833list of statements from a switch statement is therefore traversed, and the
1834statements between the case statements are grouped as separate lists.
1835
1836There is an example of how the statement lists creator would generate lists for
1837a simple method in \myref{lst:statementListsExample}.
1838
1839\begin{listing}[h]
1840\def\charwidth{5.7pt}
1841\def\indent{4*\charwidth}
1842\def\lineheight{\baselineskip}
1843\def\mintedtop{\lineheight}
1844
1845\begin{tikzpicture}[overlay, yscale=-1]
1846 \tikzstyle{overlaybox}=[fill=lightgray,opacity=0.2]
1847 \draw[overlaybox] (0,\mintedtop+\lineheight) rectangle
1848 +(22*\charwidth,10*\lineheight);
1849 \draw[overlaybox] (\indent,\mintedtop+2*\lineheight) rectangle
1850 +(13*\charwidth,\lineheight);
1851 \draw[overlaybox] (2*\indent,\mintedtop+6*\lineheight) rectangle
1852 +(13*\charwidth,2*\lineheight);
1853 \draw[overlaybox] (2*\indent,\mintedtop+9*\lineheight) rectangle
1854 +(13*\charwidth,\lineheight);
1855\end{tikzpicture}
1856\begin{minted}{java}
1857void method() {
1858 if (bool)
1859 b.bar();
1860
1861 switch (val) {
1862 case 1:
1863 b.foo();
1864 c.foo();
1865 default:
1866 c.foo();
1867 }
1868}
1869\end{minted}
1870\caption{Example of how the statement lists creator would group a simple method
1871into lists of statements. Each highlighted rectangle represents a list.}
1872\label{lst:statementListsExample}
1873\end{listing}
1874
1875\paragraph{The text selections generator} generates text selections for each
1876list of statements from the statement lists creator. Conceptually, the generator
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1877generates a text selection for every possible ordered \todo{make clearer}
1878combination of statements in a list. For a list of statements, the boundary
1879statements span out a text selection. This means that there are many different
1880lists that could span out the same selection.
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1881
1882In practice, the text selections are calculated by only one traversal of the
1883statement list. There is a set of generated text selections. For each statement,
1884there is created a temporary set of selections, in addition to a text selection
1885based on the offset and length of the statement. This text selection is added to
1886the temporary set. Then the new selection is added with every selection from the
1887set of generated text selections. These new selections are added to the
1888temporary set. Then the temporary set of selections is added to the set of
1889generated text selections. The result of adding two text selections is a new
1890text selection spanned out by the two addends.
1891
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1892\begin{listing}[h]
1893\def\charwidth{5.7pt}
1894\def\indent{4*\charwidth}
1895\def\lineheight{\baselineskip}
1896\def\mintedtop{\lineheight}
1897
1898\begin{tikzpicture}[overlay, yscale=-1]
1899 \tikzstyle{overlaybox}=[fill=lightgray,opacity=0.2]
1900
1901 \draw[overlaybox] (2*\charwidth,\mintedtop) rectangle
1902 +(18*\charwidth,\lineheight);
1903
1904 \draw[overlaybox] (2*\charwidth,\mintedtop+\lineheight) rectangle
1905 +(18*\charwidth,\lineheight);
1906
1907 \draw[overlaybox] (2*\charwidth,\mintedtop+3*\lineheight) rectangle
1908 +(18*\charwidth,\lineheight);
1909
1910 \draw[overlaybox] (\indent-3*\charwidth,\mintedtop) rectangle
1911 +(20*\charwidth,2*\lineheight);
1912
1913 \draw[overlaybox] (3*\charwidth,\mintedtop+\lineheight) rectangle
1914 +(16*\charwidth,3*\lineheight);
1915
1916 \draw[overlaybox] (\indent,\mintedtop) rectangle
1917 +(14*\charwidth,4*\lineheight);
1918\end{tikzpicture}
1919\begin{minted}{java}
1920 statement one;
1921 statement two;
1922 ...
1923 statement k;
1924\end{minted}
1925\caption{Example of how the text selections generator would generate text
1926 selections based on a lists of statements. Each highlighted rectangle
1927represents a text selection.}
1928\label{lst:textSelectionsExample}
1929\end{listing}
20bcc7bf 1930\todoin{fix \myref{lst:textSelectionsExample}?}
0fa64de5 1931
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1932\paragraph{Finding the candidate} for the refactoring is done by analyzing all
1933the generated text selection with the \type{ExtractAndMoveMethodAnalyzer}
1934\see{extractAndMoveMethodAnalyzer}. If the analyzer generates a useful result,
1935an \type{ExtractAndMoveMethodCandidate} is created from it, that is kept in a
1936list of potential candidates. If no candidates are found, the
1937\type{NoTargetFoundException} is thrown.
1938
1939Since only one of the candidates can be chosen, the analyzer must sort out which
1940candidate to choose. The sorting is done by the static \method{sort} method of
1941\type{Collections}. The comparison in this sorting is done by an
1942\type{ExtractAndMoveMethodCandidateComparator}.
1943\todoin{Write about the
1944ExtractAndMoveMethodCandidateComparator/FavorNoUnfixesCandidateComparator}
1945
1946\paragraph{The complexity} of how many text selections that needs to be analyzed
1947for a total of $n$ statements is bounded by $O(n^2)$.
1948
3471cd15 1949\begin{theorem}
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1950The number of text selections that need to be analyzed for each list of
1951statements of length $n$, is exactly
1952
3471cd15 1953\begin{equation*}
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1954 \sum_{i=1}^{n} i = \frac{n(n+1)}{2}
1955 \label{eq:complexityStatementList}
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1956\end{equation*}
1957\label{thm:numberOfTextSelection}
1958\end{theorem}
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1959
1960\begin{proof}
1961 For $n=1$ this is trivial: $\frac{1(1+1)}{2} = \frac{2}{2} = 1$. One statement
1962 equals one selection.
1963
1964 For $n=2$, you get one text selection for the first statement. For the second,
1965 you get one selection for the statement itself, and one selection for the two
1966 of them combined. This equals three selections. $\frac{2(2+1)}{2} =
1967 \frac{6}{2} = 3$.
1968
1969 For $n=3$, you get 3 selections for the two first statements, as in the case
1970 where $n=2$. In addition you get one selection for the third statement itself,
1971 and two more statements for the combinations of it with the two previous
1972 statements. This equals six selections. $\frac{3(3+1)}{2} = \frac{12}{2} = 6$.
1973
1974 Assume that for $n=k$ there exists $\frac{k(k+1)}{2}$ text selections. Then we
1975 want to add selections for another statement, following the previous $k$
1976 statements. So, for $n=k+1$, we get one additional selection for the statement
1977 itself. Then we get one selection for each pair of the new selection and the
1978 previous $k$ statements. So the total number of selections will be the number
1979 of already generated selections, plus $k$ for every pair, plus one for the
1980 statement itself: $\frac{k(k+1)}{2} + k +
1981 1 = \frac{k(k+1)+2k+2}{2} = \frac{k(k+1)+2(k+1)}{2} = \frac{(k+1)(k+2)}{2} =
1982 \frac{(k+1)((k+1)+1)}{2} = \sum_{i=1}^{k+1} i$
1983\end{proof}
1984
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1985\begin{theorem}
1986 The number of text selections for a body of statements is maximized if all the
1987 statements are at the same level.
1988 \label{thm:textSelectionsMaximized}
1989\end{theorem}
1990
1991\begin{proof}
3ab3e132 1992 Assume we have a body of, in total, $k$ statements. Let
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1993 $l,\cdots,m,(k-l-\cdots-m)$ be the lengths of the lists of statements in the
1994 body, with $l+\cdots+m<k \Rightarrow l,\cdots,m<k$.
1995
1996 Then, the number of text selections that are generated for the $k$ statements
1997 is
1998
1999 {
2000 \small
2001 \begin{align*}
2002 \frac{(k-l-\cdots-m)((k-l-\cdots-m)+ 1)}{2} + \frac{l(l+1)}{2} + \cdots +
2003 \frac{m(m+1)}{2} = \\
2004 \frac{k^2 - 2kl - \cdots - 2km + l^2 + \cdots + m^2 + k - l - \cdots - m}{2}
2005 + \frac{l^2+l}{2} + \cdots + \frac{m^2+m}{2} = \\
2006 \frac{k^2 + k + 2l^2 - 2kl + \cdots + 2m^2 - 2km}{2}
2007 \end{align*}
2008 }
2009
2010 It then remains to show that this inequality holds:
2011
2012 \begin{align*}
2013 \frac{k^2 + k + 2l^2 - 2kl + \cdots + 2m^2 - 2km}{2} < \frac{k(k+1)}{2} =
2014 \frac{k^2 + k}{2}
2015 \end{align*}
2016
2017 By multiplication by $2$ on both sides, and by removing the equal parts, we get
2018
2019 \begin{align*}
2020 2l^2 - 2kl + \cdots + 2m^2 - 2km < 0
2021 \end{align*}
2022
2023 Since $l,\cdots,m<k$, we have that $\forall i \in \{l,\cdots,m\} : 2ki > 2i^2$,
2024 so all the pairs of parts on the form $2i^2-2ki$ are negative. In sum, the
2025 inequality holds.
2026
2027\end{proof}
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2028
2029Therefore, the complexity for the number of selections that needs to be analyzed
3471cd15 2030for a body of $n$ statements is $O\bigl(\frac{n(n+1)}{2}\bigr) = O(n^2)$.
c8088eec 2031
356782a0 2032
222d172b 2033\begin{comment}
50954fde 2034\subsection{Finding the IMethod}\label{postExtractExecution}
356782a0 2035\todoin{Rename section. Write??}
222d172b 2036\end{comment}
61420ef7 2037
61420ef7 2038
b0e80574 2039\subsection{The Prefix Class}
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2040This class exists mainly for holding data about a prefix, such as the expression
2041that the prefix represents and the occurrence count of the prefix within a
2042selection. In addition to this, it has some functionality such as calculating
2043its sub-prefixes and intersecting it with another prefix. The definition of the
2044intersection between two prefixes is a prefix representing the longest common
2045expression between the two.
2046
b0e80574 2047\subsection{The PrefixSet Class}
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2048A prefix set holds elements of type \type{Prefix}. It is implemented with the
2049help of a \typewithref{java.util}{HashMap} and contains some typical set
2050operations, but it does not implement the \typewithref{java.util}{Set}
2051interface, since the prefix set does not need all of the functionality a
2052\type{Set} requires to be implemented. In addition It needs some other
2053functionality not found in the \type{Set} interface. So due to the relatively
2054limited use of prefix sets, and that it almost always needs to be referenced as
2055such, and not a \type{Set<Prefix>}, it remains as an ad hoc solution to a
2056concrete problem.
2057
2058There are two ways adding prefixes to a \type{PrefixSet}. The first is through
2059its \method{add} method. This works like one would expect from a set. It adds
2060the prefix to the set if it does not already contain the prefix. The other way
2061is to \emph{register} the prefix with the set. When registering a prefix, if the
2062set does not contain the prefix, it is just added. If the set contains the
2063prefix, its count gets incremented. This is how the occurrence count is handled.
2064
2065The prefix set also computes the set of prefixes that is not enclosing any
2066prefixes of another set. This is kind of a set difference operation only for
2067enclosing prefixes.
b0e80574 2068
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2069\subsection{Hacking the Refactoring Undo
2070History}\label{hacking_undo_history}
a6415293 2071\todoin{Where to put this section?}
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2072
2073As an attempt to make multiple subsequent changes to the workspace appear as a
2074single action (i.e. make the undo changes appear as such), I tried to alter
2075the undo changes\typeref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.Change} in the history
2076of the refactorings.
2077
2078My first impulse was to remove the, in this case, last two undo changes from the
f041551b 2079undo manager\typeref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.IUndoManager} for the
fe0a4c48 2080\name{Eclipse} refactorings, and then add them to a composite
8fae7b44
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2081change\typeref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.CompositeChange} that could be
2082added back to the manager. The interface of the undo manager does not offer a
2083way to remove/pop the last added undo change, so a possible solution could be to
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2084decorate\citing{designPatterns} the undo manager, to intercept and collect the
2085undo changes before delegating to the \method{addUndo}
f041551b 2086method\methodref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.IUndoManager}{addUndo} of the
8fae7b44
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2087manager. Instead of giving it the intended undo change, a null change could be
2088given to prevent it from making any changes if run. Then one could let the
2089collected undo changes form a composite change to be added to the manager.
2090
2091There is a technical challenge with this approach, and it relates to the undo
2092manager, and the concrete implementation
2093UndoManager2\typeref{org.eclipse.ltk.internal.core.refactoring.UndoManager2}.
2094This implementation is designed in a way that it is not possible to just add an
2095undo change, you have to do it in the context of an active
2096operation\typeref{org.eclipse.core.commands.operations.TriggeredOperations}.
2097One could imagine that it might be possible to trick the undo manager into
2098believing that you are doing a real change, by executing a refactoring that is
2099returning a kind of null change that is returning our composite change of undo
2100refactorings when it is performed.
2101
2102Apart from the technical problems with this solution, there is a functional
2103problem: If it all had worked out as planned, this would leave the undo history
2104in a dirty state, with multiple empty undo operations corresponding to each of
2105the sequentially executed refactoring operations, followed by a composite undo
2106change corresponding to an empty change of the workspace for rounding of our
2107composite refactoring. The solution to this particular problem could be to
2108intercept the registration of the intermediate changes in the undo manager, and
2109only register the last empty change.
2110
2111Unfortunately, not everything works as desired with this solution. The grouping
2112of the undo changes into the composite change does not make the undo operation
2113appear as an atomic operation. The undo operation is still split up into
2114separate undo actions, corresponding to the change done by its originating
2115refactoring. And in addition, the undo actions has to be performed separate in
2116all the editors involved. This makes it no solution at all, but a step toward
2117something worse.
2118
2119There might be a solution to this problem, but it remains to be found. The
2120design of the refactoring undo management is partly to be blamed for this, as it
2121it is to complex to be easily manipulated.
2122
b0e80574 2123
0d7fbd88 2124
2f2080fb 2125
03674629 2126\chapter{Analyzing Source Code in Eclipse}
5308274d 2127
356782a0 2128\section{The Java model}\label{javaModel}
fe0a4c48 2129The Java model of \name{Eclipse} is its internal representation of a Java project. It
5308274d 2130is light-weight, and has only limited possibilities for manipulating source
fe0a4c48 2131code. It is typically used as a basis for the Package Explorer in \name{Eclipse}.
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2132
2133The elements of the Java model is only handles to the underlying elements. This
2134means that the underlying element of a handle does not need to actually exist.
2135Hence the user of a handle must always check that it exist by calling the
2136\method{exists} method of the handle.
2137
356782a0 2138The handles with descriptions is listed in \myref{tab:javaModel}.
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2139
2140\begin{table}[h]
2141 \centering
2142
2143 \newcolumntype{L}[1]{>{\hsize=#1\hsize\raggedright\arraybackslash}X}%
2144 % sum must equal number of columns (3)
2145 \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{| L{0.7} | L{1.1} | L{1.2} |}
2146 \hline
2147 \textbf{Project Element} & \textbf{Java Model element} &
2148 \textbf{Description} \\
2149 \hline
2150 Java project & \type{IJavaProject} & The Java project which contains all other objects. \\
2151 \hline
2152 Source folder /\linebreak[2] binary folder /\linebreak[3] external library &
2153 \type{IPackageFragmentRoot} & Hold source or binary files, can be a folder
2154 or a library (zip / jar file). \\
2155 \hline
2156 Each package & \type{IPackageFragment} & Each package is below the
2157 \type{IPackageFragmentRoot}, sub-packages are not leaves of the package,
2158 they are listed directed under \type{IPackageFragmentRoot}. \\
2159 \hline
2160 Java Source file & \type{ICompilationUnit} & The Source file is always below
2161 the package node. \\
2162 \hline
2163 Types /\linebreak[2] Fields /\linebreak[3] Methods & \type{IType} /
2164 \linebreak[0]
2165 \type{IField} /\linebreak[3] \type{IMethod} & Types, fields and methods. \\
2166 \hline
2167 \end{tabularx}
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2168 \caption{The elements of the Java Model. {\footnotesize Taken from
2169 \url{http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/EclipseJDT/article.html}}}
356782a0 2170 \label{tab:javaModel}
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2171\end{table}
2172
2173The hierarchy of the Java Model is shown in \myref{fig:javaModel}.
2174
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2175\begin{figure}[h]
2176 \centering
2177 \begin{tikzpicture}[%
2178 grow via three points={one child at (0,-0.7) and
2179 two children at (0,-0.7) and (0,-1.4)},
2180 edge from parent path={(\tikzparentnode.south west)+(0.5,0) |-
2181 (\tikzchildnode.west)}]
2182 \tikzstyle{every node}=[draw=black,thick,anchor=west]
2183 \tikzstyle{selected}=[draw=red,fill=red!30]
2184 \tikzstyle{optional}=[dashed,fill=gray!50]
2185 \node {\type{IJavaProject}}
2186 child { node {\type{IPackageFragmentRoot}}
2187 child { node {\type{IPackageFragment}}
2188 child { node {\type{ICompilationUnit}}
2189 child { node {\type{IType}}
2190 child { node {\type{\{ IType \}*}}
2191 child { node {\type{\ldots}}}
2192 }
2193 child [missing] {}
2194 child { node {\type{\{ IField \}*}}}
2195 child { node {\type{IMethod}}
2196 child { node {\type{\{ IType \}*}}
2197 child { node {\type{\ldots}}}
2198 }
2199 }
2200 child [missing] {}
2201 child [missing] {}
2202 child { node {\type{\{ IMethod \}*}}}
2203 }
2204 child [missing] {}
2205 child [missing] {}
2206 child [missing] {}
2207 child [missing] {}
2208 child [missing] {}
2209 child [missing] {}
2210 child [missing] {}
2211 child { node {\type{\{ IType \}*}}}
2212 }
2213 child [missing] {}
2214 child [missing] {}
2215 child [missing] {}
2216 child [missing] {}
2217 child [missing] {}
2218 child [missing] {}
2219 child [missing] {}
2220 child [missing] {}
2221 child [missing] {}
2222 child { node {\type{\{ ICompilationUnit \}*}}}
2223 }
2224 child [missing] {}
2225 child [missing] {}
2226 child [missing] {}
2227 child [missing] {}
2228 child [missing] {}
2229 child [missing] {}
2230 child [missing] {}
2231 child [missing] {}
2232 child [missing] {}
2233 child [missing] {}
2234 child [missing] {}
2235 child { node {\type{\{ IPackageFragment \}*}}}
2236 }
2237 child [missing] {}
2238 child [missing] {}
2239 child [missing] {}
2240 child [missing] {}
2241 child [missing] {}
2242 child [missing] {}
2243 child [missing] {}
2244 child [missing] {}
2245 child [missing] {}
2246 child [missing] {}
2247 child [missing] {}
2248 child [missing] {}
2249 child [missing] {}
2250 child { node {\type{\{ IPackageFragmentRoot \}*}}}
2251 ;
2252 \end{tikzpicture}
fe0a4c48 2253 \caption{The Java model of \name{Eclipse}. ``\type{\{ SomeElement \}*}'' means
5308274d
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2254 \type{SomeElement} zero or more times. For recursive structures,
2255 ``\type{\ldots}'' is used.}
2256 \label{fig:javaModel}
2257\end{figure}
2258
3ab3e132 2259\section{The Abstract Syntax Tree}
fe0a4c48 2260\name{Eclipse} is following the common paradigm of using an abstract syntax tree for
03674629
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2261source code analysis and manipulation.
2262
03674629
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2263When parsing program source code into something that can be used as a foundation
2264for analysis, the start of the process follows the same steps as in a compiler.
3ab3e132 2265This is all natural, because the way a compiler analyzes code is no different
03674629
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2266from how source manipulation programs would do it, except for some properties of
2267code that is analyzed in the parser, and that they may be differing in what
4e468834 2268kinds of properties they analyze. Thus the process of translation source code
03674629 2269into a structure that is suitable for analyzing, can be seen as a kind of
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2270interrupted compilation process \see{fig:interruptedCompilationProcess}.
2271
2272\begin{figure}[h]
2273 \centering
2274 \tikzset{
c876d1a4 2275 base/.style={anchor=north, align=center, rectangle, minimum height=1.4cm},
65e213db 2276 basewithshadow/.style={base, drop shadow, fill=white},
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2277 outlined/.style={basewithshadow, draw, rounded corners, minimum
2278 width=0.4cm},
2279 primary/.style={outlined, font=\bfseries},
65e213db 2280 dashedbox/.style={outlined, dashed},
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2281 arrowpath/.style={black, align=center, font=\small},
2282 processarrow/.style={arrowpath, ->, >=angle 90, shorten >=1pt},
65e213db 2283 }
62563950 2284 \begin{tikzpicture}[node distance=1.3cm and 3cm, scale=1, every
c876d1a4 2285 node/.style={transform shape}]
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2286 \node[base](AuxNode1){\small source code};
2287 \node[primary, right=of AuxNode1, xshift=-2.5cm](Scanner){Scanner};
c876d1a4 2288 \node[primary, right=of Scanner, xshift=0.5cm](Parser){Parser};
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2289 \node[dashedbox, below=of Parser](SemanticAnalyzer){Semantic\\Analyzer};
2290 \node[dashedbox, left=of SemanticAnalyzer](SourceCodeOptimizer){Source
2291 Code\\Optimizer};
2292 \node[dashedbox, below=of SourceCodeOptimizer
c876d1a4 2293 ](CodeGenerator){Code\\Generator};
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2294 \node[dashedbox, right=of CodeGenerator](TargetCodeOptimizer){Target
2295 Code\\Optimizer};
2296 \node[base, right=of TargetCodeOptimizer](AuxNode2){};
c876d1a4 2297
62563950
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2298 \draw[processarrow](AuxNode1) -- (Scanner);
2299
2300 \path[arrowpath] (Scanner) -- node [sloped](tokens){tokens}(Parser);
2301 \draw[processarrow](Scanner) -- (tokens) -- (Parser);
2302
2303 \path[arrowpath] (Parser) -- node (syntax){syntax
2304 tree}(SemanticAnalyzer);
2305 \draw[processarrow](Parser) -- (syntax) -- (SemanticAnalyzer);
2306
2307 \path[arrowpath] (SemanticAnalyzer) -- node
2308 [sloped](annotated){annotated\\tree}(SourceCodeOptimizer);
2309 \draw[processarrow, dashed](SemanticAnalyzer) -- (annotated) --
2310 (SourceCodeOptimizer);
2311
2312 \path[arrowpath] (SourceCodeOptimizer) -- node
2313 (intermediate){intermediate code}(CodeGenerator);
2314 \draw[processarrow, dashed](SourceCodeOptimizer) -- (intermediate) --
2315 (CodeGenerator);
2316
2317 \path[arrowpath] (CodeGenerator) -- node [sloped](target1){target
c876d1a4 2318 code}(TargetCodeOptimizer);
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2319 \draw[processarrow, dashed](CodeGenerator) -- (target1) --
2320 (TargetCodeOptimizer);
2321
2322 \path[arrowpath](TargetCodeOptimizer) -- node [sloped](target2){target
c876d1a4 2323 code}(AuxNode2);
62563950 2324 \draw[processarrow, dashed](TargetCodeOptimizer) -- (target2) (AuxNode2);
65e213db 2325 \end{tikzpicture}
72e039dc 2326 \caption{Interrupted compilation process. {\footnotesize (Full compilation
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2327 process borrowed from \emph{Compiler construction: principles and practice}
2328 by Kenneth C. Louden\citing{louden1997}.)}}
65e213db
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2329 \label{fig:interruptedCompilationProcess}
2330\end{figure}
2331
03674629
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2332The process starts with a \emph{scanner}, or lexer. The job of the scanner is to
2333read the source code and divide it into tokens for the parser. Therefore, it is
2334also sometimes called a tokenizer. A token is a logical unit, defined in the
2335language specification, consisting of one or more consecutive characters. In
3ab3e132 2336the Java language the tokens can for instance be the \var{this} keyword, a curly
03674629 2337bracket \var{\{} or a \var{nameToken}. It is recognized by the scanner on the
3ab3e132 2338basis of something equivalent of a regular expression. This part of the process
03674629
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2339is often implemented with the use of a finite automata. In fact, it is common to
2340specify the tokens in regular expressions, that in turn is translated into a
2341finite automata lexer. This process can be automated.
2342
3ab3e132 2343The program component used to translate a stream of tokens into something
03674629
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2344meaningful, is called a parser. A parser is fed tokens from the scanner and
2345performs an analysis of the structure of a program. It verifies that the syntax
2346is correct according to the grammar rules of a language, that is usually
2347specified in a context-free grammar, and often in a variant of the
fe0a4c48 2348\name{Backus--Naur
03674629
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2349Form}\footnote{\url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backus-Naur\_Form}}. The
2350result coming from the parser is in the form of an \emph{Abstract Syntax Tree},
2351AST for short. It is called \emph{abstract}, because the structure does not
2352contain all of the tokens produced by the scanner. It only contain logical
2353constructs, and because it forms a tree, all kinds of parentheses and brackets
2354are implicit in the structure. It is this AST that is used when performing the
2355semantic analysis of the code.
2356
2357As an example we can think of the expression \code{(5 + 7) * 2}. The root of
fe0a4c48 2358this tree would in \name{Eclipse} be an \type{InfixExpression} with the operator
d11bcf4d
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2359\var{TIMES}, and a left operand that is also an \type{InfixExpression} with the
2360operator \var{PLUS}. The left operand \type{InfixExpression}, has in turn a left
2361operand of type \type{NumberLiteral} with the value \var{``5''} and a right
2362operand \type{NumberLiteral} with the value \var{``7''}. The root will have a
2363right operand of type \type{NumberLiteral} and value \var{``2''}. The AST for
2364this expression is illustrated in \myref{fig:astInfixExpression}.
2365
3ab3e132
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2366Contrary to the Java Model, an abstract syntax tree is a heavy-weight
2367representation of source code. It contains information about properties like
2368type bindings for variables and variable bindings for names.
4e468834
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2369
2370
d11bcf4d
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2371\begin{figure}[h]
2372 \centering
a1d68d95 2373 \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=0.8]
894dce0d 2374 \tikzset{level distance=40pt}
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2375 \tikzset{sibling distance=5pt}
2376 \tikzstyle{thescale}=[scale=0.8]
2377 \tikzset{every tree node/.style={align=center}}
d11bcf4d 2378 \tikzset{edge from parent/.append style={thick}}
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2379 \tikzstyle{inode}=[rectangle,rounded corners,draw,fill=lightgray,drop
2380 shadow,align=center]
2381 \tikzset{every internal node/.style={inode}}
894dce0d 2382 \tikzset{every leaf node/.style={draw=none,fill=none}}
d11bcf4d 2383
894dce0d
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2384 \Tree [.\type{InfixExpression} [.\type{InfixExpression}
2385 [.\type{NumberLiteral} \var{``5''} ] [.\type{Operator} \var{PLUS} ]
2386 [.\type{NumberLiteral} \var{``7''} ] ]
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2387 [.\type{Operator} \var{TIMES} ]
2388 [.\type{NumberLiteral} \var{``2''} ]
2389 ]
2390 \end{tikzpicture}
894dce0d 2391 \caption{The abstract syntax tree for the expression \code{(5 + 7) * 2}.}
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2392 \label{fig:astInfixExpression}
2393\end{figure}
03674629 2394
c8088eec 2395\subsection{The AST in Eclipse}\label{astEclipse}
fe0a4c48 2396In \name{Eclipse}, every node in the AST is a child of the abstract superclass
03674629
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2397\typewithref{org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom}{ASTNode}. Every \type{ASTNode}, among a
2398lot of other things, provides information about its position and length in the
2399source code, as well as a reference to its parent and to the root of the tree.
2400
2401The root of the AST is always of type \type{CompilationUnit}. It is not the same
2402as an instance of an \type{ICompilationUnit}, which is the compilation unit
894dce0d 2403handle of the Java model. The children of a \type{CompilationUnit} is an
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2404optional \type{PackageDeclaration}, zero or more nodes of type
2405\type{ImportDecaration} and all its top-level type declarations that has node
2406types \type{AbstractTypeDeclaration}.
2407
2408An \type{AbstractType\-Declaration} can be one of the types
2409\type{AnnotationType\-Declaration}, \type{Enum\-Declaration} or
2410\type{Type\-Declaration}. The children of an \type{AbstractType\-Declaration}
2411must be a subtype of a \type{BodyDeclaration}. These subtypes are:
2412\type{AnnotationTypeMember\-Declaration}, \type{EnumConstant\-Declaration},
2413\type{Field\-Declaration}, \type{Initializer} and \type{Method\-Declaration}.
2414
2415Of the body declarations, the \type{Method\-Declaration} is the most interesting
2416one. Its children include lists of modifiers, type parameters, parameters and
2417exceptions. It has a return type node and a body node. The body, if present, is
2418of type \type{Block}. A \type{Block} is itself a \type{Statement}, and its
2419children is a list of \type{Statement} nodes.
2420
2421There are too many types of the abstract type \type{Statement} to list up, but
2422there exists a subtype of \type{Statement} for every statement type of Java, as
2423one would expect. This also applies to the abstract type \type{Expression}.
2424However, the expression \type{Name} is a little special, since it is both used
2425as an operand in compound expressions, as well as for names in type declarations
2426and such.
2427
fe0a4c48 2428There is an overview of some of the structure of an \name{Eclipse} AST in
94deee9e
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2429\myref{fig:astEclipse}.
2430
e8173df5
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2431\begin{figure}[h]
2432 \centering
5e5908eb 2433 \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=0.8]
0f918507
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2434 \tikzset{level distance=50pt}
2435 \tikzset{sibling distance=5pt}
5e5908eb 2436 \tikzstyle{thescale}=[scale=0.8]
e8173df5 2437 \tikzset{every tree node/.style={align=center}}
5e5908eb
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2438 \tikzset{edge from parent/.append style={thick}}
2439 \tikzstyle{inode}=[rectangle,rounded corners,draw,fill=lightgray,drop
2440 shadow,align=center]
2441 \tikzset{every internal node/.style={inode}}
e8173df5
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2442 \tikzset{every leaf node/.style={draw=none,fill=none}}
2443
e601ce99
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2444 \Tree [.\type{CompilationUnit} [.\type{[ PackageDeclaration ]} [.\type{Name} ]
2445 [.\type{\{ Annotation \}*} ] ]
2446 [.\type{\{ ImportDeclaration \}*} [.\type{Name} ] ]
0f918507 2447 [.\type{\{ AbstractTypeDeclaration \}+} [.\node(site){\type{\{
e601ce99 2448 BodyDeclaration \}*}}; ] [.\type{SimpleName} ] ]
e8173df5 2449 ]
e601ce99 2450 \begin{scope}[shift={(0.5,-6)}]
5e5908eb 2451 \node[inode,thescale](root){\type{MethodDeclaration}};
e601ce99 2452 \node[inode,thescale](modifiers) at (4.5,-5){\type{\{ IExtendedModifier \}*}
5e5908eb 2453 \\ {\footnotesize (Of type \type{Modifier} or \type{Annotation})}};
e601ce99 2454 \node[inode,thescale](typeParameters) at (-6,-3.5){\type{\{ TypeParameter
5e5908eb 2455 \}*}};
fbeec228 2456 \node[inode,thescale](parameters) at (-5,-5){\type{\{
5e5908eb 2457 SingleVariableDeclaration \}*} \\ {\footnotesize (Parameters)}};
e601ce99 2458 \node[inode,thescale](exceptions) at (5,-3){\type{\{ Name \}*} \\
5e5908eb 2459 {\footnotesize (Exceptions)}};
e601ce99 2460 \node[inode,thescale](return) at (-6.5,-2){\type{Type} \\ {\footnotesize
5e5908eb 2461 (Return type)}};
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2462 \begin{scope}[shift={(0,-5)}]
2463 \Tree [.\node(body){\type{[ Block ]} \\ {\footnotesize (Body)}};
2464 [.\type{\{ Statement \}*} [.\type{\{ Expression \}*} ]
2465 [.\type{\{ Statement \}*} [.\type{\ldots} ]]
2466 ]
2467 ]
2468 \end{scope}
0f918507 2469 \end{scope}
e601ce99
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2470 \draw[->,>=triangle 90,shorten >=1pt](root.east)..controls +(east:2) and
2471 +(south:1)..(site.south);
0f918507 2472
5e5908eb
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2473 \draw (root.south) -- (modifiers);
2474 \draw (root.south) -- (typeParameters);
2475 \draw (root.south) -- ($ (parameters.north) + (2,0) $);
2476 \draw (root.south) -- (exceptions);
2477 \draw (root.south) -- (return);
2478 \draw (root.south) -- (body);
2479
e8173df5 2480 \end{tikzpicture}
fe0a4c48 2481 \caption{The format of the abstract syntax tree in \name{Eclipse}.}
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2482 \label{fig:astEclipse}
2483\end{figure}
94deee9e 2484\todoin{Add more to the AST format tree? \myref{fig:astEclipse}}
a2868580 2485
b8fce5af 2486\section{The ASTVisitor}\label{astVisitor}
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2487So far, the only thing that has been addressed is how the data that is going to
2488be the basis for our analysis is structured. Another aspect of it is how we are
2489going to traverse the AST to gather the information we need, so we can conclude
2490about the properties we are analysing. It is of course possible to start at the
2491top of the tree, and manually search through its nodes for the ones we are
2492looking for, but that is a bit inconvenient. To be able to efficiently utilize
2493such an approach, we would need to make our own framework for traversing the
2494tree and visiting only the types of nodes we are after. Luckily, this
fe0a4c48 2495functionality is already provided in \name{Eclipse}, by its
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2496\typewithref{org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom}{ASTVisitor}.
2497
fe0a4c48
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2498The \name{Eclipse} AST, together with its \type{ASTVisitor}, follows the
2499\pattern{Visitor} pattern\citing{designPatterns}. The intent of this design
2500pattern is to facilitate extending the functionality of classes without touching
2501the classes themselves.
0a8ca90c 2502
fe0a4c48
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2503Let us say that there is a class hierarchy of elements. These elements all have
2504a method \method{accept(Visitor visitor)}. In its simplest form, the
0a8ca90c
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2505\method{accept} method just calls the \method{visit} method of the visitor with
2506itself as an argument, like this: \code{visitor.visit(this)}. For the visitors
2507to be able to extend the functionality of all the classes in the elements
2508hierarchy, each \type{Visitor} must have one visit method for each concrete
2509class in the hierarchy. Say the hierarchy consists of the concrete classes
2510\type{ConcreteElementA} and \type{ConcreteElementB}. Then each visitor must have
2511the (possibly empty) methods \method{visit(ConcreteElementA element)} and
2512\method{visit(ConcreteElementB element)}. This scenario is depicted in
2513\myref{fig:visitorPattern}.
50976f51 2514
3572a8ac
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2515\begin{figure}[h]
2516 \centering
2517 \tikzstyle{abstract}=[rectangle, draw=black, fill=white, drop shadow, text
2518 centered, anchor=north, text=black, text width=6cm, every one node
2519part/.style={align=center, font=\bfseries\itshape}]
2520 \tikzstyle{concrete}=[rectangle, draw=black, fill=white, drop shadow, text
2521 centered, anchor=north, text=black, text width=6cm]
2522 \tikzstyle{inheritarrow}=[->, >=open triangle 90, thick]
2523 \tikzstyle{commentarrow}=[->, >=angle 90, dashed]
2524 \tikzstyle{line}=[-, thick]
2525 \tikzset{every one node part/.style={align=center, font=\bfseries}}
2526 \tikzset{every second node part/.style={align=center, font=\ttfamily}}
3572a8ac
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2527
2528 \begin{tikzpicture}[node distance=1cm, scale=0.8, every node/.style={transform
2529 shape}]
2530 \node (Element) [abstract, rectangle split, rectangle split parts=2]
2531 {
2532 \nodepart{one}{Element}
2533 \nodepart{second}{+accept(visitor: Visitor)}
2534 };
2535 \node (AuxNode01) [text width=0, minimum height=2cm, below=of Element] {};
2536 \node (ConcreteElementA) [concrete, rectangle split, rectangle split
2537 parts=2, left=of AuxNode01]
2538 {
2539 \nodepart{one}{ConcreteElementA}
2540 \nodepart{second}{+accept(visitor: Visitor)}
2541 };
2542 \node (ConcreteElementB) [concrete, rectangle split, rectangle split
2543 parts=2, right=of AuxNode01]
2544 {
2545 \nodepart{one}{ConcreteElementB}
2546 \nodepart{second}{+accept(visitor: Visitor)}
2547 };
2548
2549 \node[comment, below=of ConcreteElementA] (CommentA) {visitor.visit(this)};
2550
2551 \node[comment, below=of ConcreteElementB] (CommentB) {visitor.visit(this)};
2552
2553 \node (AuxNodeX) [text width=0, minimum height=1cm, below=of AuxNode01] {};
2554
2555 \node (Visitor) [abstract, rectangle split, rectangle split parts=2,
2556 below=of AuxNodeX]
2557 {
2558 \nodepart{one}{Visitor}
2559 \nodepart{second}{+visit(ConcreteElementA)\\+visit(ConcreteElementB)}
2560 };
2561 \node (AuxNode02) [text width=0, minimum height=2cm, below=of Visitor] {};
2562 \node (ConcreteVisitor1) [concrete, rectangle split, rectangle split
2563 parts=2, left=of AuxNode02]
2564 {
2565 \nodepart{one}{ConcreteVisitor1}
2566 \nodepart{second}{+visit(ConcreteElementA)\\+visit(ConcreteElementB)}
2567 };
2568 \node (ConcreteVisitor2) [concrete, rectangle split, rectangle split
2569 parts=2, right=of AuxNode02]
2570 {
2571 \nodepart{one}{ConcreteVisitor2}
2572 \nodepart{second}{+visit(ConcreteElementA)\\+visit(ConcreteElementB)}
2573 };
2574
2575
2576 \draw[inheritarrow] (ConcreteElementA.north) -- ++(0,0.7) -|
2577 (Element.south);
2578 \draw[line] (ConcreteElementA.north) -- ++(0,0.7) -|
2579 (ConcreteElementB.north);
2580
2581 \draw[inheritarrow] (ConcreteVisitor1.north) -- ++(0,0.7) -|
2582 (Visitor.south);
2583 \draw[line] (ConcreteVisitor1.north) -- ++(0,0.7) -|
2584 (ConcreteVisitor2.north);
2585
2586 \draw[commentarrow] (CommentA.north) -- (ConcreteElementA.south);
2587 \draw[commentarrow] (CommentB.north) -- (ConcreteElementB.south);
2588
2589
2590 \end{tikzpicture}
2591 \caption{The Visitor Pattern.}
2592 \label{fig:visitorPattern}
2593\end{figure}
2594
0a8ca90c
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2595The use of the visitor pattern can be appropriate when the hierarchy of elements
2596is mostly stable, but the family of operations over its elements is constantly
fe0a4c48 2597growing. This is clearly the case for the \name{Eclipse} AST, since the hierarchy of
0a8ca90c
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2598type \type{ASTNode} is very stable, but the functionality of its elements is
2599extended every time someone needs to operate on the AST. Another aspect of the
fe0a4c48 2600\name{Eclipse} implementation is that it is a public API, and the visitor pattern is an
0a8ca90c
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2601easy way to provide access to the nodes in the tree.
2602
fe0a4c48 2603The version of the visitor pattern implemented for the AST nodes in \name{Eclipse} also
0a8ca90c
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2604provides an elegant way to traverse the tree. It does so by following the
2605convention that every node in the tree first let the visitor visit itself,
b3adff95
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2606before it also makes all its children accept the visitor. The children are only
2607visited if the visit method of their parent returns \var{true}. This pattern
2608then makes for a prefix traversal of the AST. If postfix traversal is desired,
2609the visitors also has \method{endVisit} methods for each node type, that is
2610called after the \method{visit} method for a node. In addition to these visit
2611methods, there are also the methods \method{preVisit(ASTNode)},
2612\method{postVisit(ASTNode)} and \method{preVisit2(ASTNode)}. The
2613\method{preVisit} method is called before the type-specific \method{visit}
2614method. The \method{postVisit} method is called after the type-specific
2615\method{endVisit}. The type specific \method{visit} is only called if
2616\method{preVisit2} returns \var{true}. Overriding the \method{preVisit2} is also
2617altering the behavior of \method{preVisit}, since the default implementation is
94c59647
EK
2618responsible for calling it.
2619
2620An example of a trivial \type{ASTVisitor} is shown in
2621\myref{lst:astVisitorExample}.
2622
2623\begin{listing}
2624\begin{minted}{java}
2625public class CollectNamesVisitor extends ASTVisitor {
2626 Collection<Name> names = new LinkedList<Name>();
2627
2628 @Override
2629 public boolean visit(QualifiedName node) {
2630 names.add(node);
2631 return false;
2632 }
2633
2634 @Override
2635 public boolean visit(SimpleName node) {
2636 names.add(node);
2637 return true;
2638 }
2639}
2640\end{minted}
2641\caption{An \type{ASTVisitor} that visits all the names in a subtree and adds
2642them to a collection, except those names that are children of any
2643\type{QualifiedName}.}
2644\label{lst:astVisitorExample}
2645\end{listing}
2646
b8fce5af
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2647\section{Property collectors}\label{propertyCollectors}
2648The prefixes and unfixes are found by property
2649collectors\typeref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.extractors.collectors.PropertyCollector}.
2650A property collector is of the \type{ASTVisitor} type, and thus visits nodes of
2651type \type{ASTNode} of the abstract syntax tree \see{astVisitor}.
2652
2653\subsection{The PrefixesCollector}
2654The \typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.extractors.collectors}{PrefixesCollector}
ccd252c5 2655finds prefixes that makes up the basis for calculating move targets for the
fe0a4c48 2656\refa{Extract and Move Method} refactoring. It visits expression
b8fce5af
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2657statements\typeref{org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom.ExpressionStatement} and creates
2658prefixes from its expressions in the case of method invocations. The prefixes
2659found is registered with a prefix set, together with all its sub-prefixes.
2660
2661\subsection{The UnfixesCollector}\label{unfixes}
2662The \typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.extractors.collectors}{UnfixesCollector}
2663finds unfixes within a selection. That is prefixes that cannot be used as a
2664basis for finding a move target in a refactoring.
2665
2666An unfix can be a name that is assigned to within a selection. The reason that
2667this cannot be allowed, is that the result would be an assignment to the
2668\type{this} keyword, which is not valid in Java \see{eclipse_bug_420726}.
2669
2670Prefixes that originates from variable declarations within the same selection
2671are also considered unfixes. This is because when a method is moved, it needs to
2672be called through a variable. If this variable is also within the method that is
2673to be moved, this obviously cannot be done.
2674
2675Also considered as unfixes are variable references that are of types that is not
2676suitable for moving a methods to. This can be either because it is not
2677physically possible to move the method to the desired class or that it will
2678cause compilation errors by doing so.
2679
2680If the type binding for a name is not resolved it is considered and unfix. The
2681same applies to types that is only found in compiled code, so they have no
2682underlying source that is accessible to us. (E.g. the \type{java.lang.String}
2683class.)
2684
2685Interfaces types are not suitable as targets. This is simply because interfaces
3ab3e132 2686in Java cannot contain methods with bodies. (This thesis does not deal with
b8fce5af
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2687features of Java versions later than Java 7. Java 8 has interfaces with default
2688implementations of methods.) Neither are local types allowed. This accounts for
2689both local and anonymous classes. Anonymous classes are effectively the same as
2690interface types with respect to unfixes. Local classes could in theory be used
2691as targets, but this is not possible due to limitations of the implementation of
fe0a4c48 2692the \refa{Extract and Move Method} refactoring. The problem is that the refactoring is
b8fce5af
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2693done in two steps, so the intermediate state between the two refactorings would
2694not be legal Java code. In the case of local classes, the problem is that, in
2695the intermediate step, a selection referencing a local class would need to take
2696the local class as a parameter if it were to be extracted to a new method. This
2697new method would need to live in the scope of the declaring class of the
2698originating method. The local class would then not be in the scope of the
2699extracted method, thus bringing the source code into an illegal state. One could
2700imagine that the method was extracted and moved in one operation, without an
2701intermediate state. Then it would make sense to include variables with types of
2702local classes in the set of legal targets, since the local classes would then be
2703in the scopes of the method calls. If this makes any difference for software
2704metrics that measure coupling would be a different discussion.
2705
2706\begin{listing}
2707\begin{multicols}{2}
2708\begin{minted}[]{java}
2709// Before
2710void declaresLocalClass() {
2711 class LocalClass {
2712 void foo() {}
2713 void bar() {}
2714 }
2715
2716 LocalClass inst =
2717 new LocalClass();
2718 inst.foo();
2719 inst.bar();
2720}
2721\end{minted}
2722
2723\columnbreak
2724
2725\begin{minted}[]{java}
2726// After Extract Method
2727void declaresLocalClass() {
2728 class LocalClass {
2729 void foo() {}
2730 void bar() {}
2731 }
2732
2733 LocalClass inst =
2734 new LocalClass();
2735 fooBar(inst);
2736}
2737
2738// Intermediate step
2739void fooBar(LocalClass inst) {
2740 inst.foo();
2741 inst.bar();
2742}
2743\end{minted}
2744\end{multicols}
fe0a4c48 2745\caption{When \refa{Extract and Move Method} tries to use a variable with a local type
b8fce5af
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2746as the move target, an intermediate step is taken that is not allowed. Here:
2747\type{LocalClass} is not in the scope of \method{fooBar} in its intermediate
2748location.}
2749\label{lst:extractMethod_LocalClass}
2750\end{listing}
2751
2752The last class of names that are considered unfixes is names used in null tests.
2753These are tests that reads like this: if \texttt{<name>} equals \var{null} then
2754do something. If allowing variables used in those kinds of expressions as
2755targets for moving methods, we would end up with code containing boolean
2756expressions like \texttt{this == null}, which would not be meaningful, since
2757\var{this} would never be \var{null}.
2758
0a8ca90c 2759
5195bf0c
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2760\subsection{The ContainsReturnStatementCollector}
2761The
2762\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.collectors}{ContainsReturnStatementCollector}
2763is a very simple property collector. It only visits the return statements within
2764a selection, and can report whether it encountered a return statement or not.
2765
b8d069e4
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2766\subsection{The LastStatementCollector}
2767The \typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.collectors}{LastStatementCollector}
2768collects the last statement of a selection. It does so by only visiting the top
2769level statements of the selection, and compares the textual end offset of each
3ab3e132 2770encountered statement with the end offset of the previous statement found.
b8d069e4 2771
95c0f364 2772\section{Checkers}\label{checkers}
801ff00a 2773\todoin{Check out ExtractMethodAnalyzer from ExtractMethodRefactoring}
d6f8e65a
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2774The checkers are a range of classes that checks that text selections complies
2775with certain criteria. All checkers operates under the assumption that the code
2776they check is free from compilation errors. If a
95c0f364
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2777\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.analyzers}{Checker} fails, it throws a
2778\type{CheckerException}. The checkers are managed by the
2779\type{LegalStatementsChecker}, which does not, in fact, implement the
2780\type{Checker} interface. It does, however, run all the checkers registered with
2781it, and reports that all statements are considered legal if no
08cbba3b 2782\type{CheckerException} is thrown. Many of the checkers either extends the
f72f72f1 2783\type{PropertyCollector} or utilizes one or more property collectors to verify
3ab3e132 2784some criteria. The checkers registered with the \type{LegalStatementsChecker}
f72f72f1 2785are described next. They are run in the order presented below.
95c0f364 2786
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2787\subsection{The CallToProtectedOrPackagePrivateMethodChecker}
2788This checker is designed to prevent an error that can occur in situations where
2789a method is declared in one class, but overridden in another. If a text
2790selection contains a call to a method like this, and the seletion is extracted
2791to a new method, the subsequent movement of this method could cause the code to
2792break.
2793
2794The code breaks in situations where the method call in the selection is to a
2795method that has the \code{protected} modifier, or it does not have any access
2796modifiers, i.e. it is package-private. The method is not public, so the
2797\MoveMethod refactoring must make it public, making the moved method able to
2798call it from its new location. The problem is that the, now public, method is
2799overridden in a subclass, where it has a protected or package-private status.
2800This makes the compiler complain that the subclass is trying to reduce the
2801visibility of a method declared in its superclass. This is not allowed in Java,
2802and for good reasons. It would make it possible to make a subclass that could
2803not be a substitute for its superclass.
2804
2805The workings of the \type{CallToProtectedOrPackagePrivateMethod\-Checker} is
2806therefore very simple. It looks for calls to methods that are either protected
2807or package-private within the selection, and throws an
2808\type{IllegalExpressionFoundException} if one is found.
2809
2810The problem this checker helps to avoid, is a little subtle. The problem does
2811not arise in the class where the change is done, but in a class derived from it.
2812This shows that classes acting as superclasses are especially fragile to
2813introducing errors in the context of automated refactoring. This is also shown
2814in bug\ldots \todoin{File Eclipse bug report}
2815
2a4b8dea
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2816\subsection{The InstantiationOfNonStaticInnerClassChecker}
2817When a non-static inner class is instatiated, this must happen in the scope of
2818its declaring class. This is because it must have access to the members of the
2819declaring class. If the inner class is public, it is possible to instantiate it
2820through an instance of its declaring class, but this is not handled by the
2821\type{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor} in Eclipse when moving a method. Therefore,
2822performing a move on a method that instantiates a non-static inner class, will
2823break the code if the instantiation is not handled properly. For this reason,
2824the \type{InstantiationOfNonStaticInnerClassChecker} does not validate
2825selections that contains instantiations of non-static inner classes. This
2826problem is also related to bug\ldots \todoin{File Eclipse bug report}
2827
8d0caf4c
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2828\subsection{The EnclosingInstanceReferenceChecker}
2829The purpose of this checker is to verify that the names in a selection is not
2830referencing any enclosing instances. This is for making sure that all references
2831is legal in a method that is to be moved. Theoretically, some situations could
2832be easily solved my passing a reference to the referenced class with the moved
2833method (e.g. when calling public methods), but the dependency on the
2834\type{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor} prevents this.
2835
2836The
2837\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.analyze.analyzers}{EnclosingInstanceReferenceChecker}
2838is a modified version of the
801ff00a 2839\typewithref{org.eclipse.jdt.internal.corext.refactoring.structure.MoveInstanceMethod\-Processor}{EnclosingInstanceReferenceFinder}
8d0caf4c
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2840from the \type{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor}. Wherever the
2841\type{EnclosingInstanceReferenceFinder} would create a fatal error status, the
2842checker throws a \type{CheckerException}.
2843
2844It works by first finding all of the enclosing types of a selection. Thereafter
2845it visits all its simple names to check that they are not references to
2846variables or methods declared in any of the enclosing types. In addition the
2847checker visits \var{this}-expressions to verify that no such expressions is
2848qualified with any name.
2849
9cc2cd59 2850\subsection{The ReturnStatementsChecker}\label{returnStatementsChecker}
801ff00a 2851The checker for return statements is meant to verify that if a text selection
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2852contains a return statement, then every possible execution path within the
2853selection ends in a return statement. This property is important regarding the
2854\ExtractMethod refactoring. If it holds, it means that a method could be
2855extracted from the selection, and a call to it could be substituted for the
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2856selection. If the method has a non-void return type, then a call to it would
2857also be a valid return point for the calling method. If its return value is of
2858the void type, then the \type{ExtractMethodRefactoring} of \name{Eclipse}
2859appends an empty return statement to the back of the method call. Therefore, the
2860analysis does not discriminate on either kinds of return statements, with or
2861without a return value.
2862
2863The property description implies that if the selection is free from return
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2864statements, then the checker validates. So this is the first thing the checker
2865investigates.
2866
2867If the checker proceedes any further, it is because the selection contains one
2868or more return statements. The next test is therefore to check if the last
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2869statement of the selection ends in either a return or a throw statement. If the
2870last statement of the selection ends in a return statement, then all execution
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2871paths within the selection should end in either this, or another, return
2872statement. This is also true for a throw statement, since it causes an immediate
2873exit from the current block, together with all outer blocks in its control flow
2874that does not catch the thrown exception.
2875
2876Return statements can be either explicit or implicit. An \emph{explicit} return
2877statement is formed by using the \code{return} keyword, while an \emph{implicit}
2878return statement is a statement that is not formed by the \code{return} keyword,
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2879but must be the last statement of a method that can have any side effects. This
2880can happen in methods with a void return type. An example is a statement that is
2881inside one or more blocks. The last statement of a method could for instance be
2882an if-statement, but the last statement that is executed in the method, and that
2883can have any side effects, may be located inside the block of the else part of
2884the if-statement.
2885
2886The responsibility for checking that the last statement of the selection
2887eventually ends in a return or throw statement, is put on the
2888\type{LastStatementOfSelectionEndsInReturnOrThrowChecker}. For every node
2889visited, if it is a statement, it does a test to see if the statement is a
2890return, a throw or if it is an implicit return statement. If this is the case,
2891no further checking is done. This checking is done in the \code{preVisit2}
2892method \see{astVisitor}. If the node is not of a type that is being handled by
2893its type specific visit method, the checker performs a simple test. If the node
2894being visited is not the last statement of its parent that is also enclosed by
2895the selection, an \type{IllegalStatementFoundException} is thrown. This ensures
2896that all statements are taken care of, one way or the other. It also ensures
2897that the checker is conservative in the way it checks for legality of the
2898selection.
2899
2900To examine if a statement is an implicit return statement, the checker first
2901finds the last statement declared in its enclosing method. If this statement is
2902the same as the one under investigation, it is considered an implicit return
2903statement. If the statements are not the same, the checker does a search to see
2904if statement examined is also the last statement of the method that can be
2905reached. This includes the last statement of a block statement, a labeled
2906statement, a synchronized statement or a try statement, that in turn is the last
2907statement enclosed by the statement types listed. This search goes through all
2908the parents of a statement until a statement is found that is not one of the
2909mentioned acceptable parent statements. If the search ends in a method
2910declaration, then the statement is considered to be the last reachable statement
2911of the method, and thus also an implicit return statement.
2912
2913There are two kinds of statements that are handled explicitly. It is
2914if-statements and try-statements. Block, labeled and do-statements are handled
2915by fall-through to the other two. Do-statements are considered equal to blocks
2916in this context, since their bodies are always evaluated at least one time. If-
2917and try-statements are visited only if they are the last node of their parent
2918within the selection.
2919
2920For if-statements, the rule is that if the then-part does not contain any return
2921or throw statements, it is considered illegal. If it does contain a return or
2922throw, its else-part is checked. If the else-part is non-existent, or it does
2923not contain any return or throw statements, it is considered illegal. If the
2924statement is not regarded illegal, its children are visited.
2925
2926Try-statements are handled much the same way as if-statements. Its body must
2927contain a return or throw. The same applies to its catch clauses and finally
2928body.
2929
2930If the checker does not complain at any point, the selection is considered valid
2931with respect to return statements.
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2932
2933\subsection{The AmbiguousReturnValueChecker}
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2934This checker verifies that there are no \emph{ambiguous return statements} in a
2935selection. The problem with ambiguous return statements arise when a selection
2936is chosen to be extracted into a new method, but it needs to return more than
2937one value from that method. This problem occurs in two situations. The first
2938situation arise when there is more than one local variable that is both assigned
2939to within a selection and also referenced after the selection. The other
2940situation occur when there is only one such assignment, but there is also one or
2941more return statements in the selection.
2942
2943First the checker needs to collect some data. Those data are the binding keys
2944for all simple names that are assigned to within the selection, including
2945variable declarations, but excluding fields. The checker also collects whether
2946there exists a return statement in the selection or not. No further checks of
2947return statements are needed, since, at this point, the selection is already
2948checked for illegal return statements \see{returnStatementsChecker}.
2949
2950After the binding keys of the assignees are collected, the checker searches the
2951part of the enclosing method that is after the selection for references whose
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2952binding keys are among the collected keys. If more than one unique referral is
2953found, or only one referral is found, but the selection also contains a return
2954statement, we have a situation with an ambiguous return value, and an exception
2955is thrown.
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2956
2957%\todoin{Explain why we do not need to consider variables assigned inside
2958%local/anonymous classes. (The referenced variables need to be final and so
2959%on\ldots)}
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2960
2961\subsection{The IllegalStatementsChecker}
2962This checker is designed to check for illegal statements.
2963
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2964Any use of the \var{super} keyword is prohibited, since its meaning is altered
2965when moving a method to another class.
2966
2967For a \emph{break} statement, there is two situations to consider: A break
2968statement with or without a label. If the break statement has a label, it is
2969checked that whole of the labeled statement is inside the selection. Since a
2970label does not have any binding information, we have to search upwards in the
2971AST to find the \type{LabeledStatement} that corresponds to the label from the
2972break statement, and check that it is contained in the selection. If the break
2973statement does not have a label attached to it, it is checked that its innermost
2974enclosing loop or switch statement also is inside the selection.
2975
2976The situation for a \emph{continue} statement is the same as for a break
2977statement, except that it is not allowed inside switch statements.
2978
2979Regarding \emph{assignments}, two types of assignments is allowed: Assignment to
2980a non-final variable and assignment to an array access. All other assignments is
2981regarded illegal.
2982
2983\todoin{Finish\ldots}
41cde50e 2984
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2985
2986\chapter{Benchmarking}
2987\todoin{Better name than ``benchmarking''?}
fe0a4c48 2988This part of the master project is located in the \name{Eclipse} project
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2989\code{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.benchmark}. The purpose of it is to run the equivalent
2990of the \type{SearchBasedExtractAndMoveMethodChanger}
2991\see{searchBasedExtractAndMoveMethodChanger} over a larger software project,
3ab3e132 2992both to test its robustness but also its effect on different software metrics.
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2993
2994\section{The benchmark setup}
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2995The benchmark itself is set up as a \name{JUnit} test case. This is a convenient
2996setup, and utilizes the \name{JUnit Plugin Test Launcher}. This provides us a
2997with a fully functional \name{Eclipse} workbench. Most importantly, this gives
2998us access to the Java Model of \name{Eclipse} \see{javaModel}.
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2999
3000\subsection{The ProjectImporter}
3001The Java project that is going to be used as the data for the benchmark, must be
3002imported into the JUnit workspace. This is done by the
3003\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.benchmark}{ProjectImporter}. The importer
3004require the absolute path to the project description file. It is named
3005\code{.project} and is located at the root of the project directory.
3006
3007The project description is loaded to find the name of the project to be
3008imported. The project that shall be the destination for the import is created in
3009the workspace, on the base of the name from the description. Then an import
3010operation is created, based on both the source and destination information. The
3011import operation is run to perform the import.
3012
3013I have found no simple API call to accomplish what the importer does, which
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3014tells me that it may not be too many people performing this particular action.
3015The solution to the problem was found on \name{Stack
356782a0 3016Overflow}\footnote{\url{https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12401297}}. It
3ab3e132 3017contains enough dirty details to be considered inconvenient to use, if not
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3018wrapping it in a class like my \type{ProjectImporter}. One would probably have
3019to delve into the source code for the import wizard to find out how the import
3020operation works, if no one had already done it.
3021
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3022\section{Statistics}
3023Statistics for the analysis and changes is captured by the
3024\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.aspects}{StatisticsAspect}. This an
fe0a4c48 3025\emph{aspect} written in \name{AspectJ}.
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3026
3027\subsection{AspectJ}
fe0a4c48 3028\name{AspectJ}\footnote{\url{http://eclipse.org/aspectj/}} is an extension to
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3029the Java language, and facilitates combining aspect-oriented programming with
3030the object-oriented programming in Java.
3031
3032Aspect-oriented programming is a programming paradigm that is meant to isolate
3033so-called \emph{cross-cutting concerns} into their own modules. These
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3034cross-cutting concerns are functionalities that spans over multiple classes, but
3035may not belong naturally in any of them. It can be functionality that does not
3036concern the business logic of an application, and thus may be a burden when
3037entangled with parts of the source code it does not really belong. Examples
3038include logging, debugging, optimization and security.
8fe94c0b 3039
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3040Aspects are interacting with other modules by defining advices. The concept of
3041an \emph{advice} is known from both aspect-oriented and functional
3042programming\citing{wikiAdvice2014}. It is a function that modifies another
3043function when the latter is run. An advice in AspectJ is somewhat similar to a
3044method in Java. It is meant to alter the behavior of other methods, and contains
3045a body that is executed when it is applied.
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3046
3047An advice can be applied at a defined \emph{pointcut}. A pointcut picks out one
3048or more \emph{join points}. A join point is a well-defined point in the
3049execution of a program. It can occur when calling a method defined for a
3050particular class, when calling all methods with the same name,
3051accessing/assigning to a particular field of a given class and so on. An advice
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3052can be declared to run both before, after returning from a pointcut, when there
3053is thrown an exception in the pointcut or after the pointcut either returns or
3054throws an exception. In addition to picking out join points, a pointcut can
3055also bind variables from its context, so they can be accessed in the body of an
3056advice. An example of a pointcut and an advice is found in
3057\myref{lst:aspectjExample}.
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3058
3059\begin{listing}[h]
c8088eec 3060\begin{minted}{aspectj}
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3061pointcut methodAnalyze(
3062 SearchBasedExtractAndMoveMethodAnalyzer analyzer) :
3063 call(* SearchBasedExtractAndMoveMethodAnalyzer.analyze())
3064 && target(analyzer);
3065
3066after(SearchBasedExtractAndMoveMethodAnalyzer analyzer) :
3067 methodAnalyze(analyzer) {
3068 statistics.methodCount++;
3069 debugPrintMethodAnalysisProgress(analyzer.method);
3070}
3071\end{minted}
3072\caption{An example of a pointcut named \method{methodAnalyze},
3073and an advice defined to be applied after it has occurred.}
3074\label{lst:aspectjExample}
3075\end{listing}
3076
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3077\subsection{The Statistics class}
3078The statistics aspect stores statistical information in an object of type
3079\type{Statistics}. As of now, the aspect needs to be initialized at the point in
3080time where it is desired that it starts its data gathering. At any point in time
3081the statistics aspect can be queried for a snapshot of the current statistics.
3082
3083The \type{Statistics} class also include functionality for generating a report
3084of its gathered statistics. The report can be given either as a string or it can
3085be written to a file.
3086
3087\subsection{Advices}
3088The statistics aspect contains advices for gathering statistical data from
3089different parts of the benchmarking process. It captures statistics from both
3090the analysis part and the execution part of the composite \ExtractAndMoveMethod
3091refactoring.
3092
3093For the analysis part, there are advices to count the number of text selections
3094analyzed and the number of methods, types, compilation units and packages
3095analyzed. There are also advices that counts for how many of the methods there
3096is found a selection that is a candidate for the refactoring, and for how many
3ab3e132 3097methods there is not.
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3098
3099There exists advices for counting both the successful and unsuccessful
3100executions of all the refactorings. Both for the \ExtractMethod and \MoveMethod
3101refactorings in isolation, as well as for the combination of them.
3102
8fe94c0b 3103\section{Optimizations}
41293210 3104When looking for optimizations to make for the benchmarking process, I used the
fe0a4c48 3105\name{VisualVM}\footnote{\url{http://visualvm.java.net/}} for the Java Virtual
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3106Machine to both profile the application and also to make memory dumps of its
3107heap.
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3108
3109\subsection{Caching}
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3110When profiling the benchmark process before making any optimizations, it early
3111became apparent that the parsing of source code was a place to direct attention
3112towards. This discovery was done when only \emph{analyzing} source code, before
3113trying to do any \emph{manipulation} of it. Caching of the parsed ASTs seemed
3114like the best way to save some time, as expected. With only a simple cache of
3115the most recently used AST, the analysis time was speeded up by a factor of
3116around
311720. This number depends a little upon which type of system the analysis was
3118run.
3119
3120The caching is managed by a cache manager, that now, by default, utilizes the
3121not so well known feature of Java called a \emph{soft reference}. Soft
3122references are best explained in the context of weak references. A \emph{weak
3123reference} is a reference to an object instance that is only guaranteed to
3124persist as long as there is a \emph{strong reference} or a soft reference
3125referring the same object. If no such reference is found, its referred object is
3126garbage collected. A strong reference is basically the same as a regular Java
3127reference. A soft reference has the same guarantees as a week reference when it
3128comes to its relation to strong references, but it is not necessarily garbage
3129collected whenever there exists no strong references to it. A soft reference
3130\emph{may} reside in memory as long as the JVM has enough free memory in the
3131heap. A soft reference will therefore usually perform better than a weak
3132reference when used for simple caching and similar tasks. The way to use a
3133soft/weak reference is to as it for its referent. The return value then has to
3134be tested to check that it is not \var{null}. For the basic usage of soft
3135references, see \myref{lst:softReferenceExample}. For a more thorough
3136explanation of weak references in general, see\citing{weakRef2006}.
3137
3138\begin{listing}[h]
3139\begin{minted}{java}
3140// Strong reference
3141Object strongRef = new Object();
3142
3143// Soft reference
3144SoftReference<Object> softRef =
3145 new SoftReference<Object>(new Object());
3146
3147// Using the soft reference
3148Object obj = softRef.get();
3149if (obj != null) {
3150 // Use object here
3151}
3152\end{minted}
3153\caption{Showing the basic usage of soft references. Weak references is used the
3154 same way. {\footnotesize (The references are part of the \code{java.lang.ref}
3155package.)}}
3156\label{lst:softReferenceExample}
3157\end{listing}
3158
3159The cache based on soft references has no limit for how many ASTs it caches. It
3160is generally not advisable to keep references to ASTs for prolonged periods of
3161time, since they are expensive structures to hold on to. For regular plugin
fe0a4c48 3162development, \name{Eclipse} recommends not creating more than one AST at a time to
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3163limit memory consumption. Since the benchmarking has nothing to do with user
3164experience, and throughput is everything, these advices are intentionally
fe0a4c48 3165ignored. This means that during the benchmarking process, the target \name{Eclipse}
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3166application may very well work close to its memory limit for the heap space for
3167long periods during the benchmark.
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3168
3169\subsection{Memento}
d6f8e65a 3170\todoin{Write}
356782a0 3171
3727b75b 3172\chapter{Eclipse Bugs Found}
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3173\todoin{Add other things and change headline?}
3174
3175\section{Eclipse bug 420726: Code is broken when moving a method that is
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3176assigning to the parameter that is also the move
3177destination}\label{eclipse_bug_420726}
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3178This bug\footnote{\url{https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show\_bug.cgi?id=420726}}
3179was found when analyzing what kinds of names that was to be considered as
3727b75b 3180\emph{unfixes} \see{unfixes}.
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3181
3182\subsection{The bug}
3183The bug emerges when trying to move a method from one class to another, and when
3184the target for the move (must be a variable, local or field) is both a parameter
fe0a4c48 3185variable and also is assigned to within the method body. \name{Eclipse} allows this to
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3186happen, although it is the sure path to a compilation error. This is because we
3187would then have an assignment to a \var{this} expression, which is not allowed
3188in Java.
3189
3190\subsection{The solution}
3191The solution to this problem is to add all simple names that are assigned to in
3192a method body to the set of unfixes.
128adb4f 3193
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3194\section{Eclipse bug 429416: IAE when moving method from anonymous
3195class}\label{eclipse_bug_429416}
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3196I
3197discovered\footnote{\url{https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show\_bug.cgi?id=429416}}
3198this bug during a batch change on the \type{org.eclipse.jdt.ui} project.
3199
3200\subsection{The bug}
fe0a4c48 3201This bug surfaces when trying to use the \refa{Move Method} refactoring to move a
94bb49f0 3202method from an anonymous class to another class. This happens both for my
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3203simulation as well as in \name{Eclipse}, through the user interface. It only occurs
3204when \name{Eclipse} analyzes the program and finds it necessary to pass an instance of
94bb49f0 3205the originating class as a parameter to the moved method. I.e. it want to pass a
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3206\var{this} expression. The execution ends in an
3207\typewithref{java.lang}{IllegalArgumentException} in
3208\typewithref{org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom}{SimpleName} and its
3209\method{setIdentifier(String)} method. The simple name is attempted created in
3210the method
3211\methodwithref{org.eclipse.jdt.internal.corext.refactoring.structure.\\MoveInstanceMethodProcessor}{createInlinedMethodInvocation}
3212so the \type{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor} was early a clear suspect.
3213
3214The \method{createInlinedMethodInvocation} is the method that creates a method
3215invocation where the previous invocation to the method that was moved was. From
3216its code it can be read that when a \var{this} expression is going to be passed
3217in to the invocation, it shall be qualified with the name of the original
3ab3e132 3218method's declaring class, if the declaring class is either an anonymous class or
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3219a member class. The problem with this, is that an anonymous class does not have
3220a name, hence the term \emph{anonymous} class! Therefore, when its name, an
3221empty string, is passed into
3222\methodwithref{org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom.AST}{newSimpleName} it all ends in an
3223\type{IllegalArgumentException}.
3224
3225\subsection{How I solved the problem}
3226Since the \type{MoveInstanceMethodProcessor} is instantiated in the
3227\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.executors}{MoveMethod\-RefactoringExecutor},
3228and only need to be a
3229\typewithref{org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.participants}{MoveProcessor}, I
3230was able to copy the code for the original move processor and modify it so that
3231it works better for me. It is now called
f1b6174d 3232\typewithref{no.uio.ifi.refaktor.change.processors}{ModifiedMoveInstanceMethodProcessor}.
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3233The only modification done (in addition to some imports and suppression of
3234warnings), is in the \method{createInlinedMethodInvocation}. When the declaring
3235class of the method to move is anonymous, the \var{this} expression in the
3236parameter list is not qualified with the declaring class' (empty) name.
3237
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3238\section{Eclipse bug 429954: Extracting statement with reference to local type
3239breaks code}\label{eclipse_bug_429954}
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3240The bug\footnote{\url{https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show\_bug.cgi?id=429954}}
3241was discovered when doing some changes to the way unfixes is computed.
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3242
3243\subsection{The bug}
fe0a4c48 3244The problem is that \name{Eclipse} is allowing selections that references variables of
3727b75b
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3245local types to be extracted. When this happens the code is broken, since the
3246extracted method must take a parameter of a local type that is not in the
3247methods scope. The problem is illustrated in
3248\myref{lst:extractMethod_LocalClass}, but there in another setting.
3249
3250\subsection{Actions taken}
3251There are no actions directly springing out of this bug, since the Extract
a6415293 3252Method refactoring cannot be meant to be this way. This is handled on the
fe0a4c48 3253analysis stage of our \refa{Extract and Move Method} refactoring. So names representing
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3254variables of local types is considered unfixes \see{unfixes}.
3255\todoin{write more when fixing this in legal statements checker}
3256
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3257\chapter{Related Work}
3258
3259\section{The compositional paradigm of refactoring}
3260This paradigm builds upon the observation of Vakilian et
3261al.\citing{vakilian2012}, that of the many automated refactorings existing in
3262modern IDEs, the simplest ones are dominating the usage statistics. The report
fe0a4c48 3263mainly focuses on \name{Eclipse} as the tool under investigation.
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3264
3265The paradigm is described almost as the opposite of automated composition of
3266refactorings \see{compositeRefactorings}. It works by providing the programmer
3267with easily accessible primitive refactorings. These refactorings shall be
3268accessed via keyboard shortcuts or quick-assist menus\footnote{Think
fe0a4c48 3269quick-assist with Ctrl+1 in \name{Eclipse}} and be promptly executed, opposed to in the
3ab3e132 3270currently dominating wizard-based refactoring paradigm. They are meant to
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3271stimulate composing smaller refactorings into more complex changes, rather than
3272doing a large upfront configuration of a wizard-based refactoring, before
3273previewing and executing it. The compositional paradigm of refactoring is
3274supposed to give control back to the programmer, by supporting \himher with an
3275option of performing small rapid changes instead of large changes with a lesser
3276degree of control. The report authors hope this will lead to fewer unsuccessful
3277refactorings. It also could lower the bar for understanding the steps of a
3278larger composite refactoring and thus also help in figuring out what goes wrong
3279if one should choose to op in on a wizard-based refactoring.
3280
3281Vakilian and his associates have performed a survey of the effectiveness of the
3282compositional paradigm versus the wizard-based one. They claim to have found
3283evidence of that the \emph{compositional paradigm} outperforms the
3284\emph{wizard-based}. It does so by reducing automation, which seem
3285counterintuitive. Therefore they ask the question ``What is an appropriate level
3286of automation?'', and thus questions what they feel is a rush toward more
3287automation in the software engineering community.
3288
3289
9ff90080 3290\backmatter{}
fe0a4c48 3291\printglossaries
9ff90080 3292\printbibliography
055dca93 3293\listoftodos
9ff90080 3294\end{document}