A field study in static extraction of runtime architectures

ABSTRACT

We recently developed a static analysis to extract runtime architectures from object-oriented programs written in existing languages. The approach relies on adding ownership domain annotations to the code, and statically extracts a hierarchical runtime architecture from an annotated program.

We present promising results from a week-long on-site field study to evaluate the method and the tools on a 30-KLOC module of a 250-KLOC commercial system. In a few days, we were able to add the annotations to the module and extract a top-level architecture for review by a developer.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.3 Language Constructs and Features

General Terms:
Experimentation, Languages

Keywords:
architecture recovery, ownership types, runtime architecture