The design navigator: charting java programs

ABSTRACT

The Design Navigator is a semi-automated design mining tool which reverse engineers LePUS3 design charts from Java^™ 1.4 programs at any level of abstraction in reasonable time. We demonstrate the Design Navigator's step-wise charting process of Java Foundation Classes, generating decreasingly abstract charts of java.awt and discovering building-blocks in its design.

REFERENCES

• 1: Eden, A.H., Gasparis, E., and Nicholson, J. 2007. LePUS3 and Class-Z Reference Manual. Tech. Rep. CSM-474, ISSN 1744-8050, University of Essex. www.lepus.org.uk
• 2: Eden, A.H., Nicholson, J., and Gasparis, E. 2007. The ''Gang of Four'' Companion: Formal specification of design patterns in LePUS3 and Class-Z. Tech. Rep. CSM-472, ISSN 1744-8050, University of Essex. www.lepus.org.uk
• 3: Erich Gamma , Richard Helm , Ralph Johnson , John Vlissides, Design patterns: elements of reusable object-oriented software, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1995
• 4: Gasparis E., and Eden, A.H. 2007. Design Mining in LePUS3/Class-Z: Search Space and Abstraction/Concretization Operators. Tech. Rep. CSM-473, ISSN 1744-8050, University of Essex. www.lepus.org.uk
• 5: Rick Kazman , S. Jeromy Carrière, Playing Detective: Reconstructing Software Architecture from Available Evidence, Automated Software Engineering, v.6 n.2, p.107-138, April 1999 [doi>10.1023/A:1008781513258]
• 6: Gail C. Murphy , David Notkin , Kevin J. Sullivan, Software Reflexion Models: Bridging the Gap between Design and Implementation, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, v.27 n.4, p.364-380, April 2001 [doi>10.1109/32.917525]
• 7: Margaret-Anne Storey , Casey Best , Jeff Michaud , Derek Rayside , Marin Litoiu , Mark Musen, SHriMP views: an interactive environment for information visualization and navigation, CHI '02 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, April 20-25, 2002, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA [doi>10.1145/506443.506459]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.7 Distribution, Maintenance, and Enhancement
          Subjects: Restructuring, reverse engineering, and reengineering

General Terms:
Design, Documentation, Languages

Keywords:
design mining, object-oriented design, reverse engineering, software modelling, software visualization