In reengineering legacy code it is frequently useful to introduce a design pattern in order to add clarity to the system and thus facilitate further program evolution. We show that this type of transformation can be automated in a pragmatic manner and present a methodology for the development of design pattern transformations. We address the issues of the definition of a starting point for the transformation, the decomposition of a pattern into mini-patterns and the development of corresponding mini-transformations that can introduce these mini-patterns to a program. We argue that behaviour preservation is a key issue and develop a rigorous argument of this for each mini-transformation we discover. The architecture of an existing software prototype is also discussed and the results of applying this methodology to develop a transformation for the Factory Method pattern are presented.
title = "A Methodology for the Automated Introduction of Design Patterns",
abstract = "In reengineering legacy code it is frequently useful to introduce a design pattern in order to add clarity to the system and thus facilitate further program evolution. We show that this type of transformation can be automated in a pragmatic manner and present a methodology for the development of design pattern transformations. We address the issues of the definition of a starting point for the transformation, the decomposition of a pattern into mini-patterns and the development of corresponding mini-transformations that can introduce these mini-patterns to a program. We argue that behaviour preservation is a key issue and develop a rigorous argument of this for each mini-transformation we discover. The architecture of an existing software prototype is also discussed and the results of applying this methodology to develop a transformation for the Factory Method pattern are presented.",
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution
TY - GEN
T1 - A Methodology for the Automated Introduction of Design Patterns
AU - O'Cinneide, M
AU - Nixon, Patrick
PY - 1999
Y1 - 1999
N2 - In reengineering legacy code it is frequently useful to introduce a design pattern in order to add clarity to the system and thus facilitate further program evolution. We show that this type of transformation can be automated in a pragmatic manner and present a methodology for the development of design pattern transformations. We address the issues of the definition of a starting point for the transformation, the decomposition of a pattern into mini-patterns and the development of corresponding mini-transformations that can introduce these mini-patterns to a program. We argue that behaviour preservation is a key issue and develop a rigorous argument of this for each mini-transformation we discover. The architecture of an existing software prototype is also discussed and the results of applying this methodology to develop a transformation for the Factory Method pattern are presented.
AB - In reengineering legacy code it is frequently useful to introduce a design pattern in order to add clarity to the system and thus facilitate further program evolution. We show that this type of transformation can be automated in a pragmatic manner and present a methodology for the development of design pattern transformations. We address the issues of the definition of a starting point for the transformation, the decomposition of a pattern into mini-patterns and the development of corresponding mini-transformations that can introduce these mini-patterns to a program. We argue that behaviour preservation is a key issue and develop a rigorous argument of this for each mini-transformation we discover. The architecture of an existing software prototype is also discussed and the results of applying this methodology to develop a transformation for the Factory Method pattern are presented.