We are hiring new doctoral researchers, student research assistants, and tutors. Apply now!
2 papers accepted at FSE 2024!

Publications about Structural Analysis and Comprehension

Articles in journal or book chapters
  1. Dirk Beyer, Andreas Noack, and Claus Lewerentz. Efficient Relational Calculation for Software Analysis. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), 31(2):137-149, 2005. doi:10.1109/TSE.2005.23 Link to this entry Invited to special issue of selected papers from WCRE 2003 Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF
    Abstract
    Calculating with graphs and relations has many applications in the analysis of software systems, for example, the detection of design patterns or patterns of problematic design and the computation of design metrics. These applications require an expressive query language, in particular, for the detection of graph patterns, and an efficient evaluation of the queries even for large graphs. In this paper, we introduce RML, a simple language for querying and manipulating relations based on predicate calculus, and CrocoPat, an interpreter for RML programs. RML is general because it enables the manipulation not only of graphs (i.e., binary relations), but of relations of arbitrary arity. CrocoPat executes RML programs efficiently because it internally represents relations as binary decision diagrams, a data structure that is well-known as a compact representation of large relations in computer-aided verification. We evaluate RML by giving example programs for several software analyses and CrocoPat by comparing its performance with calculators for binary relations, a Prolog system, and a relational database management system.
    BibTeX Entry
    @article{TSE05, author = {Dirk Beyer and Andreas Noack and Claus Lewerentz}, title = {Efficient Relational Calculation for Software Analysis}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE)}, volume = {31}, number = {2}, pages = {137-149}, year = {2005}, doi = {10.1109/TSE.2005.23}, sha256 = {}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2005-TSE.Efficient_Relational_Calculation_for_Software_Analysis.pdf}, abstract = {Calculating with graphs and relations has many applications in the analysis of software systems, for example, the detection of design patterns or patterns of problematic design and the computation of design metrics. These applications require an expressive query language, in particular, for the detection of graph patterns, and an efficient evaluation of the queries even for large graphs. In this paper, we introduce RML, a simple language for querying and manipulating relations based on predicate calculus, and CrocoPat, an interpreter for RML programs. RML is general because it enables the manipulation not only of graphs (i.e., binary relations), but of relations of arbitrary arity. CrocoPat executes RML programs efficiently because it internally represents relations as binary decision diagrams, a data structure that is well-known as a compact representation of large relations in computer-aided verification. We evaluate RML by giving example programs for several software analyses and CrocoPat by comparing its performance with calculators for binary relations, a Prolog system, and a relational database management system.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, annote = {Also available as postprint at the eScholarship Repository, University of California: <BR> <a href="http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/687"> http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/687</a> <BR> CrocoPat is available at: <a href="http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CrocoPat/"> http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CrocoPat</a>}, note = {Invited to special issue of selected papers from WCRE 2003}, }
    Additional Infos
    Also available as postprint at the eScholarship Repository, University of California:
    http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/687
    CrocoPat is available at: http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CrocoPat

Articles in conference or workshop proceedings
  1. Dirk Beyer and Peter Häring. A Formal Evaluation of DepDegree Based on Weyuker's Properties. In C. Roy, A. Begel, and L. Moonen, editors, Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2014, Hyderabad, India, June 2-3), pages 258-261, 2014. ACM. doi:10.1145/2597008.2597794 Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF Supplement
    Abstract
    Complexity of source code is an important characteristic that software engineers aim to quantify using static software measurement. Several measures used in practice as indicators for software complexity have theoretical flaws. In order to assess the quality of a software measure, Weyuker established a set of properties that an indicator for program-code complexity should satisfy. It is known that several well-established complexity indicators do not fulfill Weyuker's properties. We show that DepDegree, a measure for data-flow dependencies, satisfies all of Weyuker's properties.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{ICPC14, author = {Dirk Beyer and Peter H{\"a}ring}, title = {A Formal Evaluation of {DepDegree} Based on {Weyuker}'s Properties}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC~2014, Hyderabad, India, June 2-3)}, editor = {C.~Roy and A.~Begel and L.~Moonen}, pages = {258-261}, year = {2014}, publisher = {ACM}, isbn = {978-1-4503-2879-1}, doi = {10.1145/2597008.2597794}, url = {http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/DepDegreeProperties}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2014-ICPC.A_Formal_Evaluation_of_DepDegree_Based_on_Weyukers_Properties.pdf}, abstract = {Complexity of source code is an important characteristic that software engineers aim to quantify using static software measurement. Several measures used in practice as indicators for software complexity have theoretical flaws. In order to assess the quality of a software measure, Weyuker established a set of properties that an indicator for program-code complexity should satisfy. It is known that several well-established complexity indicators do not fulfill Weyuker's properties. We show that DepDegree, a measure for data-flow dependencies, satisfies all of Weyuker's properties.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, }
  2. Sven Apel and Dirk Beyer. Feature Cohesion in Software Product Lines: An Exploratory Study. In Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2011, Honolulu, HI, May 21-28), pages 421-430, 2011. ACM Press, New York (NY). doi:10.1145/1985793.1985851 Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF
    Abstract
    Software product lines gain momentum in research and industry. Many product-line approaches use features as a central abstraction mechanism. Feature-oriented software development aims at encapsulating features in cohesive units to support program comprehension, variability, and reuse. Surprisingly, not much is known about the characteristics of cohesion in feature-oriented product lines, although proper cohesion is of special interest in product-line engineering due to its focus on variability and reuse. To fill this gap, we conduct an exploratory study on forty software product lines of different sizes and domains. A distinguishing property of our approach is that we use both classic software measures and novel measures that are based on distances in clustering layouts, which can be used also for visual exploration of product-line architectures. This way, we can draw a holistic picture of feature cohesion. In our exploratory study, we found several interesting correlations (e.g., between development process and feature cohesion) and we discuss insights and perspectives of investigating feature cohesion (e.g., regarding feature interfaces and programming style).
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{ICSE11, author = {Sven Apel and Dirk Beyer}, title = {Feature Cohesion in Software Product Lines: An Exploratory Study}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE~2011, Honolulu, HI, May 21-28)}, pages = {421-430}, year = {2011}, publisher = {ACM Press, New York (NY)}, isbn = {978-1-4503-0445-0}, doi = {10.1145/1985793.1985851}, url = {}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2011-ICSE.Feature_Cohesion_in_Software_Product_Lines_An_Exploratory_Study.pdf}, abstract = {Software product lines gain momentum in research and industry. Many product-line approaches use features as a central abstraction mechanism. Feature-oriented software development aims at encapsulating features in cohesive units to support program comprehension, variability, and reuse. Surprisingly, not much is known about the characteristics of cohesion in feature-oriented product lines, although proper cohesion is of special interest in product-line engineering due to its focus on variability and reuse. To fill this gap, we conduct an exploratory study on forty software product lines of different sizes and domains. A distinguishing property of our approach is that we use both classic software measures and novel measures that are based on distances in clustering layouts, which can be used also for visual exploration of product-line architectures. This way, we can draw a holistic picture of feature cohesion. In our exploratory study, we found several interesting correlations (e.g., between development process and feature cohesion) and we discuss insights and perspectives of investigating feature cohesion (e.g., regarding feature interfaces and programming style).}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, }
  3. Dirk Beyer and Ashgan Fararooy. CheckDep: A Tool for Tracking Software Dependencies. In Proceedings of the 18th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2010, Braga, June 30 - July 2), pages 42-43, 2010. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (CA). doi:10.1109/ICPC.2010.51 Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF
    Abstract
    Many software developers use a syntactical 'diff' in order to perform a quick review before committing changes to the repository. Others are notified of the change by e-mail (containing diffs or change logs), and they review the received information to determine if their work is affected. We lift this simple process from the code level to the more abstract level of dependencies: a software developer can use CheckDep to inspect introduced and removed dependencies before committing new versions, and other developers receive summaries of the changed dependencies via e-mail. We find the tool useful in our software-development activities and now make the tool publicly available.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{ICPC10c, author = {Dirk Beyer and Ashgan Fararooy}, title = {{{\sc CheckDep}}: A Tool for Tracking Software Dependencies}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 18th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC~2010, Braga, June 30 - July 2)}, pages = {42-43}, year = {2010}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos~(CA)}, isbn = {978-0-7695-4113-6}, doi = {10.1109/ICPC.2010.51}, url = {}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2010-ICPC.CheckDep_A_Tool_for_Tracking_Software_Dependencies.pdf}, abstract = {Many software developers use a syntactical `diff' in order to perform a quick review before committing changes to the repository. Others are notified of the change by e-mail (containing diffs or change logs), and they review the received information to determine if their work is affected. We lift this simple process from the code level to the more abstract level of dependencies: a software developer can use CheckDep to inspect introduced and removed dependencies before committing new versions, and other developers receive summaries of the changed dependencies via e-mail. We find the tool useful in our software-development activities and now make the tool publicly available.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, }
  4. Dirk Beyer and Ashgan Fararooy. DepDigger: A Tool for Detecting Complex Low-Level Dependencies. In Proceedings of the 18th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2010, Braga, June 30 - July 2), pages 40-41, 2010. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (CA). doi:10.1109/ICPC.2010.52 Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF
    Abstract
    We present a tool that identifies complex data-flow dependencies on code-level, based on the measure dep-degree. Low-level dependencies between program operations are modeled by the use-def graph, which is generated from reaching definitions of variables. The tool annotates program operations with their dep-degree values, such that 'difficult' program operations are easy to locate. We hope that this tool helps detecting and preventing code degeneration, which is often a challenge in today's software projects, due to the high refactoring and restructuring frequency.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{ICPC10b, author = {Dirk Beyer and Ashgan Fararooy}, title = {{{\sc DepDigger}}: A Tool for Detecting Complex Low-Level Dependencies}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 18th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC~2010, Braga, June 30 - July 2)}, pages = {40-41}, year = {2010}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos~(CA)}, isbn = {978-0-7695-4113-6}, doi = {10.1109/ICPC.2010.52}, url = {}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2010-ICPC.DepDigger_A_Tool_for_Detecting_Complex_Low-Level_Dependencies.pdf}, abstract = {We present a tool that identifies complex data-flow dependencies on code-level, based on the measure dep-degree. Low-level dependencies between program operations are modeled by the use-def graph, which is generated from reaching definitions of variables. The tool annotates program operations with their dep-degree values, such that `difficult' program operations are easy to locate. We hope that this tool helps detecting and preventing code degeneration, which is often a challenge in today's software projects, due to the high refactoring and restructuring frequency.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, }
  5. Dirk Beyer and Ashgan Fararooy. A Simple and Effective Measure for Complex Low-Level Dependencies. In Proceedings of the 18th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2010, Braga, June 30 - July 2), pages 80-83, 2010. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (CA). doi:10.1109/ICPC.2010.49 Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF Presentation
    Abstract
    The measure dep-degree is a simple indicator for structural problems and complex dependencies on code-level. We model low-level dependencies between program operations as use-def graph, which is generated from reaching definitions of variables. The more dependencies a program operation has, the more different program states have to be considered and the more difficult it is to understand the operation. Dep-degree is simple to compute and interpret, flexible and scalable in its application, and independently complementing other indicators. Preliminary experiments suggest that the measure dep-degree, which simply counts the number of dependency edges in the use-def graph, is a good indicator for readability and understandablity.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{ICPC10a, author = {Dirk Beyer and Ashgan Fararooy}, title = {A Simple and Effective Measure for Complex Low-Level Dependencies}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 18th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC~2010, Braga, June 30 - July 2)}, pages = {80-83}, year = {2010}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos~(CA)}, isbn = {978-0-7695-4113-6}, doi = {10.1109/ICPC.2010.49}, url = {}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2010-ICPC.A_Simple_and_Effective_Measure_for_Complex_Low-Level_Dependencies.pdf}, presentation = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/prs/2010-06_DepDegree.pdf}, abstract = {The measure dep-degree is a simple indicator for structural problems and complex dependencies on code-level. We model low-level dependencies between program operations as use-def graph, which is generated from reaching definitions of variables. The more dependencies a program operation has, the more different program states have to be considered and the more difficult it is to understand the operation. Dep-degree is simple to compute and interpret, flexible and scalable in its application, and independently complementing other indicators. Preliminary experiments suggest that the measure dep-degree, which simply counts the number of dependency edges in the use-def graph, is a good indicator for readability and understandablity.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, }
  6. Dirk Beyer. CCVisu: Automatic Visual Software Decomposition. In Proceedings of the 30th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2008, Leipzig, May 10-18), pages 967-968, 2008. ACM Press, New York (NY). doi:10.1145/1370175.1370211 Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF Supplement
    Abstract
    Understanding the structure of large existing (and evolving) software systems is a major challenge for software engineers. In reverse engineering, we aim to compute, for a given software system, a decomposition of the system into its subsystems. CCVisu is a lightweight tool that takes as input a software graph model and computes a visual representation of the system's structure, i.e., it structures the system into separated groups of artifacts that are strongly related, and places them in a 2- or 3-dimensional space. Besides the decomposition into subsystems, it reveals the relatedness between the subsystems via interpretable distances. The tool reads a software graph from a simple text file in RSF format, e.g., call, inheritance, containment, or co-change graphs. The resulting system structure is currently either directly presented on the screen, or written to an output file in SVG, VRML, or plain text format. The tool is designed as a reusable software component, easy to use, and easy to integrate into other tools; it is based on efficient algorithms and supports several formats for data interchange.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{ICSE08, author = {Dirk Beyer}, title = {{{\sc CCVisu}}: Automatic Visual Software Decomposition}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 30th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE~2008, Leipzig, May 10-18)}, pages = {967-968}, year = {2008}, publisher = {ACM Press, New York~(NY)}, isbn = {978-1-60558-079-1}, doi = {10.1145/1370175.1370211}, url = {http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CCVisu/}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2008-ICSE.CCVisu_Automatic_Visual_Software_Decomposition.pdf}, abstract = {Understanding the structure of large existing (and evolving) software systems is a major challenge for software engineers. In reverse engineering, we aim to compute, for a given software system, a decomposition of the system into its subsystems. CCVisu is a lightweight tool that takes as input a software graph model and computes a visual representation of the system's structure, i.e., it structures the system into separated groups of artifacts that are strongly related, and places them in a 2- or 3-dimensional space. Besides the decomposition into subsystems, it reveals the relatedness between the subsystems via interpretable distances. The tool reads a software graph from a simple text file in RSF format, e.g., call, inheritance, containment, or co-change graphs. The resulting system structure is currently either directly presented on the screen, or written to an output file in SVG, VRML, or plain text format. The tool is designed as a reusable software component, easy to use, and easy to integrate into other tools; it is based on efficient algorithms and supports several formats for data interchange.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, annote = {}, }
  7. Dirk Beyer and Ahmed E. Hassan. Animated Visualization of Software History using Evolution Storyboards. In Proceedings of the 13th IEEE Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE 2006, Benevento, October 23-27), pages 199-208, 2006. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (CA). doi:10.1109/WCRE.2006.14 Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF
    Abstract
    The understanding of the structure of a software system can be improved by analyzing the system's evolution during development. Visualizations of software history that provide only static views do not capture the dynamic nature of software evolution. We present a new visualization technique, the Evolution Storyboard, which provides dynamic views of the evolution of a software's structure. An evolution storyboard consists of a sequence of animated panels, which highlight the structural changes in the system; one panel for each considered time period. Using storyboards, engineers can spot good design, signs of structural decay, or the spread of cross cutting concerns in the code. We implemented our concepts in a tool, which automatically extracts software dependency graphs from version control repositories and computes storyboards based on panels for different time periods. For applying our approach in practice, we provide a step by step guide that others can follow along the storyboard visualizations, in order to study the evolution of large systems. We have applied our method to several large open source software systems. In this paper, we demonstrate that our method provides additional information (compared to static views) on the ArgoUML project, an open source UML modeling tool.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{WCRE06, author = {Dirk Beyer and Ahmed E.~Hassan}, title = {Animated Visualization of Software History using Evolution Storyboards}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 13th IEEE Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE~2006, Benevento, October 23-27)}, pages = {199-208}, year = {2006}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos~(CA)}, isbn = {1095-1350}, doi = {10.1109/WCRE.2006.14}, url = {}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2006-WCRE.Animated_Visualization_of_Software_History_using_Evolution_Storyboards.pdf}, abstract = {The understanding of the structure of a software system can be improved by analyzing the system's evolution during development. Visualizations of software history that provide only static views do not capture the dynamic nature of software evolution. We present a new visualization technique, the Evolution Storyboard, which provides dynamic views of the evolution of a software's structure. An evolution storyboard consists of a sequence of animated panels, which highlight the structural changes in the system; one panel for each considered time period. Using storyboards, engineers can spot good design, signs of structural decay, or the spread of cross cutting concerns in the code. We implemented our concepts in a tool, which automatically extracts software dependency graphs from version control repositories and computes storyboards based on panels for different time periods. For applying our approach in practice, we provide a step by step guide that others can follow along the storyboard visualizations, in order to study the evolution of large systems. We have applied our method to several large open source software systems. In this paper, we demonstrate that our method provides additional information (compared to static views) on the ArgoUML project, an open source UML modeling tool.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, annote = {}, }
  8. Dirk Beyer and Ahmed E. Hassan. Evolution Storyboards: Visualization of Software Structure Dynamics. In Proceedings of the 14th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2006, Athens, June 14-16), pages 248-251, 2006. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (CA). doi:10.1109/ICPC.2006.21 Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF
    Abstract
    Large software systems have a rich development history. Mining certain aspects of this rich history can reveal interesting insights into the system and its structure. Previous approaches to visualize the evolution of software systems provide static views. These static views often do not fully capture the dynamic nature of evolution. We introduce the Evolution Storyboard, a visualization which provides dynamic views of the evolution of a software's structure. Our tool implementation takes as input a series of software graphs, e.g., call graphs or co-change graphs, and automatically generates an evolution storyboard. To illustrate the concept, we present a storyboard for PostgreSQL, as a representative example for large open source systems. Evolution storyboards help to understand a system's structure and to reveal its possible decay over time. The storyboard highlights important changes in the structure during the lifetime of a software system, and how artifacts changed their dependencies over time.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{ICPC06, author = {Dirk Beyer and Ahmed E.~Hassan}, title = {Evolution Storyboards: Visualization of Software Structure Dynamics}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 14th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC~2006, Athens, June 14-16)}, pages = {248-251}, year = {2006}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos~(CA)}, isbn = {0-7695-2601-2}, doi = {10.1109/ICPC.2006.21}, url = {}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2006-ICPC.Evolution_Storyboards_Visualization_of_Software_Structure_Dynamics.pdf}, abstract = {Large software systems have a rich development history. Mining certain aspects of this rich history can reveal interesting insights into the system and its structure. Previous approaches to visualize the evolution of software systems provide static views. These static views often do not fully capture the dynamic nature of evolution. We introduce the Evolution Storyboard, a visualization which provides dynamic views of the evolution of a software's structure. Our tool implementation takes as input a series of software graphs, e.g., call graphs or co-change graphs, and automatically generates an evolution storyboard. To illustrate the concept, we present a storyboard for PostgreSQL, as a representative example for large open source systems. Evolution storyboards help to understand a system's structure and to reveal its possible decay over time. The storyboard highlights important changes in the structure during the lifetime of a software system, and how artifacts changed their dependencies over time.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, annote = {}, }
  9. Dirk Beyer. Relational Programming with CrocoPat. In Proceedings of the 28th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2006, Shanghai, May 20-28), pages 807-810, 2006. ACM Press, New York (NY). doi:10.1145/1134285.1134420 Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF Supplement
    Abstract
    Many structural analyses of software systems are naturally formalized as relational queries, for example, the detection of design patterns, patterns of problematic design, code clones, dead code, and differences between the as-built and the as-designed architecture. This paper describes CrocoPat, an application-independent tool for relational programming. Through its efficiency and its expressive language, CrocoPat enables practically important analyses of real-world software systems that are not possible with other graph analysis tools, in particular analyses that involve transitive closures and the detection of patterns in graphs. The language is easy to use, because it is based on the well-known first-order predicate logic. The tool is easy to integrate into other software systems, because it is a small command-line tool that uses a simple text format for input and output of relations.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{ICSE06b, author = {Dirk Beyer}, title = {Relational Programming with {{\sc CrocoPat}}}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 28th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE~2006, Shanghai, May 20-28)}, pages = {807-810}, year = {2006}, publisher = {ACM Press, New York~(NY)}, isbn = {1-59593-375-1}, doi = {10.1145/1134285.1134420}, url = {http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CrocoPat/}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2006-ICSE.Relational_Programming_with_CrocoPat.pdf}, abstract = {Many structural analyses of software systems are naturally formalized as relational queries, for example, the detection of design patterns, patterns of problematic design, code clones, dead code, and differences between the as-built and the as-designed architecture. This paper describes CrocoPat, an application-independent tool for relational programming. Through its efficiency and its expressive language, CrocoPat enables practically important analyses of real-world software systems that are not possible with other graph analysis tools, in particular analyses that involve transitive closures and the detection of patterns in graphs. The language is easy to use, because it is based on the well-known first-order predicate logic. The tool is easy to integrate into other software systems, because it is a small command-line tool that uses a simple text format for input and output of relations.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, annote = {CrocoPat is available at: <a href="http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CrocoPat/"> http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CrocoPat/</a>}, }
    Additional Infos
  10. Alain Wegmann, Lam-Son Le, Lotfi Hussami, and Dirk Beyer. A Tool for Verified Design using Alloy for Specification and CrocoPat for Verification. In D. Jackson and P. Zave, editors, Proceedings of the First Alloy Workshop (ALLOY 2006, Portland, OR, November 6), 2006. Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension PDF
    Abstract
    The context of our work is a project that focuses on methods and tools for modeling enterprise architectures. An enterprise architecture model represents the structure of an enterprise across multiple levels, from the markets in which it operates down to the implementation of the technical systems that support its operation. These models are based on an ontology that defines the model elements and their relations. In this paper, we describe an efficient method to fully automatically verify the design that our modeling tool manages. We specify the ontology in Alloy, and use the efficient interpreter for relational programs CrocoPat to verify that the design fulfills all constraints specified in the ontology. Technically, we transform all constraints from Alloy into a relational program in CrocoPat's programming language. Then, we execute the relational program and feed it with a relational representation of the design as input, in order to check that the design element instances fulfill all constraints of the Alloy representation of the ontology. We also present the current limitations of our approach and how -by overcoming these limitations- we can develop an Alloy-based parameterized modeling tool.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{ALLOY06, author = {Alain Wegmann and Lam-Son Le and Lotfi Hussami and Dirk Beyer}, title = {A Tool for Verified Design using {Alloy} for Specification and {CrocoPat} for Verification}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the First Alloy Workshop (ALLOY~2006, Portland, OR, November 6)}, editor = {D.~Jackson and P.~Zave}, pages = {}, year = {2006}, publisher = {}, isbn = {}, url = {}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2006-ALLOY.A_Tool_for_Verified_Design_using_Alloy_for_Specification_and_CrocoPat_for_Verification.pdf}, abstract = {The context of our work is a project that focuses on methods and tools for modeling enterprise architectures. An enterprise architecture model represents the structure of an enterprise across multiple levels, from the markets in which it operates down to the implementation of the technical systems that support its operation. These models are based on an ontology that defines the model elements and their relations. In this paper, we describe an efficient method to fully automatically verify the design that our modeling tool manages. We specify the ontology in Alloy, and use the efficient interpreter for relational programs CrocoPat to verify that the design fulfills all constraints specified in the ontology. Technically, we transform all constraints from Alloy into a relational program in CrocoPat's programming language. Then, we execute the relational program and feed it with a relational representation of the design as input, in order to check that the design element instances fulfill all constraints of the Alloy representation of the ontology. We also present the current limitations of our approach and how -by overcoming these limitations- we can develop an Alloy-based parameterized modeling tool.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, doinone = {DOI not available}, }
  11. Dirk Beyer. Co-Change Visualization Applied to PostgreSQL and ArgoUML. In Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Mining Software Repositories (MSR 2006, Shanghai, May 22-23), pages 165-166, 2006. ACM Press. doi:10.1145/1137983.1138023 Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF Supplement
    Abstract
    Co-change visualization is a method to recover the subsystem structure of a software system from the version history, based on common changes and visual clustering. This paper presents the results of applying the tool CCVisu, which implements co-change visualization, to the two open-source software systems PostgreSQL and ArgoUML. The input of the method is the co-change graph, which can be easily extracted by CCVisu from a CVS version repository. The output is a graph layout that places software artifacts that were often commonly changed at close positions, and artifacts that were rarely co-changed at distant positions. This property of the layout is due to the clustering property of the underlying energy model, which evaluates the quality of a produced layout. The layout can be displayed on the screen, or saved to a file in SVG or VRML format.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{MSR06, author = {Dirk Beyer}, title = {Co-Change Visualization Applied to {PostgreSQL} and {ArgoUML}}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Mining Software Repositories (MSR~2006, Shanghai, May 22-23)}, pages = {165-166}, year = {2006}, publisher = {ACM Press}, isbn = {1-59593-397-2}, doi = {10.1145/1137983.1138023}, url = {http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/ccvisu_msr}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2006-MSR.Co-Change_Visualization_Applied_to_PostgreSQL_and_ArgoUML.pdf}, abstract = {Co-change visualization is a method to recover the subsystem structure of a software system from the version history, based on common changes and visual clustering. This paper presents the results of applying the tool CCVisu, which implements co-change visualization, to the two open-source software systems PostgreSQL and ArgoUML. The input of the method is the co-change graph, which can be easily extracted by CCVisu from a CVS version repository. The output is a graph layout that places software artifacts that were often commonly changed at close positions, and artifacts that were rarely co-changed at distant positions. This property of the layout is due to the clustering property of the underlying energy model, which evaluates the quality of a produced layout. The layout can be displayed on the screen, or saved to a file in SVG or VRML format.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, annote = {}, }
  12. Dirk Beyer. Co-Change Visualization. In Proceedings of the 21st IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM 2005, Budapest, September 25-30), Industrial and Tool volume, pages 89-92, 2005. Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension PDF Supplement
    Abstract
    Clustering layouts of software systems combine two important aspects: they reveal groups of related artifacts of the software system, and they produce a visualization of the results that is easy to understand. Co-change visualization is a lightweight method for computing clustering layouts of software systems for which the change history is available. This paper describes CCVisu, a tool that implements co-change visualization. It extracts the co-change graph from a version repository, and computes a layout, which positions the artifacts of the software system in a two- or three-dimensional space. Two artifacts are positioned closed together in the layout if they were often changed together. The tool is designed as a framework, easy to use, and easy to integrate into reengineering environments; several formats for data interchange are already implemented. The graph layout is currently provided in VRML format, in a standard text format, or directly drawn on the screen.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{ICSM05, author = {Dirk Beyer}, title = {Co-Change Visualization}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 21st IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM~2005, Budapest, September 25-30), Industrial and Tool volume}, pages = {89-92}, year = {2005}, isbn = {963-460-980-5}, url = {../../2005-ICSM.Co-Change_Visualization/main.html}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2005-ICSM.Co-Change_Visualization.pdf}, abstract = {Clustering layouts of software systems combine two important aspects: they reveal groups of related artifacts of the software system, and they produce a visualization of the results that is easy to understand. Co-change visualization is a lightweight method for computing clustering layouts of software systems for which the change history is available. This paper describes CCVisu, a tool that implements co-change visualization. It extracts the co-change graph from a version repository, and computes a layout, which positions the artifacts of the software system in a two- or three-dimensional space. Two artifacts are positioned closed together in the layout if they were often changed together. The tool is designed as a framework, easy to use, and easy to integrate into reengineering environments; several formats for data interchange are already implemented. The graph layout is currently provided in VRML format, in a standard text format, or directly drawn on the screen.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, address = {Budapest}, annote = {Tool Paper <BR> CCVisu is available at: <a href="http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CCVisu/"> http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CCVisu</a>}, doinone = {DOI not available}, }
    Additional Infos
    Tool Paper
    CCVisu is available at: http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CCVisu
  13. Dirk Beyer and Andreas Noack. Clustering Software Artifacts Based on Frequent Common Changes. In Proceedings of the 13th IEEE International Workshop on Program Comprehension (IWPC 2005, St. Louis, MO, May 15-16), pages 259-268, 2005. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (CA). doi:10.1109/WPC.2005.12 Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF Supplement
    Abstract
    Changes of software systems are less expensive and less error-prone if they affect only one subsystem. Thus, clusters of artifacts that are frequently changed together are subsystem candidates. We introduce a two-step method for identifying such clusters. First, a model of common changes of software artifacts, called co-change graph, is extracted from the version control repository of the software system. Second, a layout of the co-change graph is computed that reveals clusters of frequently co-changed artifacts. We derive requirements for such layouts, and introduce an energy model for producing layouts that fulfill these requirements. We evaluate the method by applying it to three example systems, and comparing the resulting layouts to authoritative decompositions.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{IWPC05, author = {Dirk Beyer and Andreas Noack}, title = {Clustering Software Artifacts Based on Frequent Common Changes}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 13th IEEE International Workshop on Program Comprehension (IWPC~2005, St. Louis, MO, May 15-16)}, pages = {259-268}, year = {2005}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos~(CA)}, isbn = {0-7695-2254-8}, doi = {10.1109/WPC.2005.12}, url = {http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/co-change}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2005-IWPC.Clustering_Software_Artifacts_Based_on_Frequent_Common_Changes.pdf}, abstract = {Changes of software systems are less expensive and less error-prone if they affect only one subsystem. Thus, clusters of artifacts that are frequently changed together are subsystem candidates. We introduce a two-step method for identifying such clusters. First, a model of common changes of software artifacts, called co-change graph, is extracted from the version control repository of the software system. Second, a layout of the co-change graph is computed that reveals clusters of frequently co-changed artifacts. We derive requirements for such layouts, and introduce an energy model for producing layouts that fulfill these requirements. We evaluate the method by applying it to three example systems, and comparing the resulting layouts to authoritative decompositions.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, annote = {Supplementary material: <a href="http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/co-change/"> http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/co-change/</a>}, }
    Additional Infos
  14. Dirk Beyer, Andreas Noack, and Claus Lewerentz. Simple and Efficient Relational Querying of Software Structures. In Proceedings of the Tenth IEEE Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE 2003, Victoria, BC, November 13-16), pages 216-225, 2003. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (CA). doi:10.1109/WCRE.2003.1287252 Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF Supplement
    Abstract
    Many analyses of software systems can be formalized as relational queries, for example the detection of design patterns, of patterns of problematic design, of code clones, of dead code, and of differences between the as-built and the as-designed architecture. This paper describes the concepts of CrocoPat, a tool for querying and manipulating relations. CrocoPat is easy to use, because of its simple query and manipulation language based on predicate calculus, and its simple file format for relations. CrocoPat is efficient, because it internally represents relations as binary decision diagrams, a data structure that is well-known as a compact representation of large relations in computer-aided verification. CrocoPat is general, because it manipulates not only graphs (i.e. binary relations), but n-ary relations.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{WCRE03, author = {Dirk Beyer and Andreas Noack and Claus Lewerentz}, title = {Simple and Efficient Relational Querying of Software Structures}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Tenth IEEE Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE~2003, Victoria, BC, November 13-16)}, pages = {216-225}, year = {2003}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos~(CA)}, isbn = {0-7695-2027-8}, doi = {10.1109/WCRE.2003.1287252}, url = {http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CrocoPat/}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2003-WCRE.Simple_and_Efficient_Relational_Querying_of_Software_Structures.pdf}, abstract = {Many analyses of software systems can be formalized as relational queries, for example the detection of design patterns, of patterns of problematic design, of code clones, of dead code, and of differences between the as-built and the as-designed architecture. This paper describes the concepts of CrocoPat, a tool for querying and manipulating relations. CrocoPat is easy to use, because of its simple query and manipulation language based on predicate calculus, and its simple file format for relations. CrocoPat is efficient, because it internally represents relations as binary decision diagrams, a data structure that is well-known as a compact representation of large relations in computer-aided verification. CrocoPat is general, because it manipulates not only graphs (i.e. binary relations), but n-ary relations.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, annote = {CrocoPat's concepts, an introduction to the BDD-based implementation, software analysis applications, and performance measurements.<BR>}, }
    Additional Infos
    CrocoPat's concepts, an introduction to the BDD-based implementation, software analysis applications, and performance measurements.
  15. Dirk Beyer and Claus Lewerentz. CrocoPat: Efficient Pattern Analysis in Object-Oriented Programs. In Proceedings of the 11th IEEE International Workshop on Program Comprehension (IWPC 2003, Portland, OR, May 10-11), pages 294-295, 2003. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (CA). doi:10.1109/WPC.2003.1199220 Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF Supplement
    Abstract
    Automatic pattern-based recognition of design weakness is a research topic since almost 10 years. Reports about experiments with existing approaches reveal two major problems: A notation for easy and flexible specification of the pattern is missing; only a restricted set of patterns is applicable because of the limitations of the specification language. Performance improvement is needed, because the computation time of existing tools is to high to be acceptable for large real-world systems.
    The tool CrocoPat satisfies the following three requirements: (1) The analysis is done automatically by the tool, i.e. without user interaction. (2) The properties of a system are specified in an easy and flexible way because the patterns are described by relational expressions. On demand the user is able to define new patterns he is interested in, or to change existing patterns to solve specific problems. (3) The tool is able to analyze large object-oriented programs (1'000 to 10'000 classes) in acceptable time.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{IWPC03, author = {Dirk Beyer and Claus Lewerentz}, title = {{{\sc CrocoPat}}: Efficient Pattern Analysis in Object-Oriented Programs}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 11th IEEE International Workshop on Program Comprehension (IWPC~2003, Portland, OR, May 10-11)}, pages = {294-295}, year = {2003}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos~(CA)}, isbn = {0-7695-1883-4}, doi = {10.1109/WPC.2003.1199220}, url = {http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CrocoPat/}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2003-IWPC.CrocoPat_Efficient_Pattern_Analysis_in_Object-Oriented_Programs.pdf}, abstract = {Automatic pattern-based recognition of design weakness is a research topic since almost 10 years. Reports about experiments with existing approaches reveal two major problems: A notation for easy and flexible specification of the pattern is missing; only a restricted set of patterns is applicable because of the limitations of the specification language. Performance improvement is needed, because the computation time of existing tools is to high to be acceptable for large real-world systems. <BR> The tool CrocoPat satisfies the following three requirements: (1) The analysis is done automatically by the tool, i.e. without user interaction. (2) The properties of a system are specified in an easy and flexible way because the patterns are described by relational expressions. On demand the user is able to define new patterns he is interested in, or to change existing patterns to solve specific problems. (3) The tool is able to analyze large object-oriented programs (1'000 to 10'000~classes) in acceptable time.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, annote = {Introduction of a BDD-based tool for pattern analysis and a short overview of the main features of CrocoPat.}, }
    Additional Infos
    Introduction of a BDD-based tool for pattern analysis and a short overview of the main features of CrocoPat.
  16. Dirk Beyer, Claus Lewerentz, and Frank Simon. Impact of Inheritance on Metrics for Size, Coupling, and Cohesion in Object Oriented Systems. In R. Dumke and A. Abran, editors, Proceedings of the Tenth International Workshop on Software Measurement (IWSM 2000, Berlin, October 4-6): New Approaches in Software Measurement, LNCS 2006, pages 1-17, 2001. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg. doi:10.1007/3-540-44704-0_1 Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension Publisher's Version PDF
    Abstract
    In today's engineering of object oriented systems many different metrics are used to get feedback about design quality and to automatically identify design weaknesses. While the concept of inheritance is covered by special inheritance metrics its impact on other classical metrics (like size, coupling or cohesion metrics) is not considered; this can yield misleading measurement values and false interpretations. In this paper we present an approach to work the concept of inheritance into classical metrics (and with it the related concepts of overriding, overloading and polymorphism). This is done by some language dependent flattening functions that modify the data on which the measurement will be done. These functions are implemented within our metrics tool Crocodile and are applied for a case study: the comparison of the measurement values of the original data with the measurement values of the flattened data yields interesting results and improves the power of classical measurements for interpretation.
    BibTeX Entry
    @inproceedings{IWSM00, author = {Dirk Beyer and Claus Lewerentz and Frank Simon}, title = {Impact of Inheritance on Metrics for Size, Coupling, and Cohesion in Object Oriented Systems}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Tenth International Workshop on Software Measurement (IWSM~2000, Berlin, October 4-6): New Approaches in Software Measurement}, editor = {R.~Dumke and A.~Abran}, pages = {1-17}, year = {2001}, series = {LNCS~2006}, publisher = {Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg}, isbn = {3-540-41727-3}, doi = {10.1007/3-540-44704-0_1}, url = {}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2000-IWSM.Impact_of_Inheritance_on_Metrics.pdf}, abstract = {In today's engineering of object oriented systems many different metrics are used to get feedback about design quality and to automatically identify design weaknesses. While the concept of inheritance is covered by special inheritance metrics its impact on other classical metrics (like size, coupling or cohesion metrics) is not considered; this can yield misleading measurement values and false interpretations. In this paper we present an approach to work the concept of inheritance into classical metrics (and with it the related concepts of overriding, overloading and polymorphism). This is done by some language dependent <i>flattening</i> functions that modify the data on which the measurement will be done. These functions are implemented within our metrics tool <i>Crocodile</i> and are applied for a case study: the comparison of the measurement values of the original data with the measurement values of the flattened data yields interesting results and improves the power of classical measurements for interpretation.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, annote = {Online: <a href="http://link.springer.de/link/service/series/0558/bibs/2006/20060001.htm"> http://link.springer.de/link/service/series/0558/bibs/2006/20060001.htm</a> <BR>}, }
    Additional Infos

Internal reports
  1. Dirk Beyer and Andreas Noack. Mining Co-Change Clusters from Version Repositories. Technical report IC/2005/003, School of Computer and Communication Sciences (IC), Ecole Polytechnique Féd\ŕale de Lausanne (EPFL), January 2005. Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension PDF Supplement
    Abstract
    Clusters of software artifacts that are frequently changed together are subsystem candidates, because one of the main goals of software design is to make changes local. The contribution of this paper is a visualization-based method that supports the identification of such clusters. First, we define the co-change graph as a simple but powerful model of common changes of software artifacts, and describe how to extract the graph from version control repositories. Second, we introduce an energy model for computing force-directed layouts of co-change graphs. The resulting layouts have a well-defined interpretation in terms of the structure of the visualized graph, and clearly reveal groups of frequently co-changed artifacts. We evaluate our method by comparing the layouts for three example projects with authoritative subsystem decompositions.
    BibTeX Entry
    @techreport{TR003-EPFL05, author = {Dirk Beyer and Andreas Noack}, title = {Mining Co-Change Clusters from Version Repositories}, number = {IC/2005/003}, year = {2005}, url = {http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/52706}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2005-EPFL-TR003.Mining_Co-Change_Clusters_from_Version_Repositories.pdf}, abstract = {Clusters of software artifacts that are frequently changed together are subsystem candidates, because one of the main goals of software design is to make changes local. The contribution of this paper is a visualization-based method that supports the identification of such clusters. First, we define the co-change graph as a simple but powerful model of common changes of software artifacts, and describe how to extract the graph from version control repositories. Second, we introduce an energy model for computing force-directed layouts of co-change graphs. The resulting layouts have a well-defined interpretation in terms of the structure of the visualized graph, and clearly reveal groups of frequently co-changed artifacts. We evaluate our method by comparing the layouts for three example projects with authoritative subsystem decompositions.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, annote = {Online: <a href="http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/52706"> http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/52706</a> <BR>}, institution = {School of Computer and Communication Sciences (IC), Ecole Polytechnique F\'ed\'erale de Lausanne (EPFL)}, month = {January}, }
    Additional Infos
  2. Dirk Beyer and Andreas Noack. CrocoPat 2.1 Introduction and Reference Manual. Technical report UCB//CSD-04-1338, Computer Science Division (EECS), University of California, Berkeley, July 2004. Link to this entry Also: The Computing Research Repository (CoRR), cs.PL/0409009, September 2004 Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension PDF Supplement
    Abstract
    CrocoPat is an efficient, powerful and easy-to-use tool for manipulating relations of arbitrary arity, including directed graphs. This manual provides an introduction to and a reference for CrocoPat and its programming language RML. It includes several application examples, in particular from the analysis of structural models of software systems.
    BibTeX Entry
    @techreport{TR1338-UCB04, author = {Dirk Beyer and Andreas Noack}, title = {{CrocoPat} 2.1 {I}ntroduction and Reference Manual}, number = {UCB//CSD-04-1338}, year = {2004}, url = {../../2004-UCB-TR1338.CrocoPat_2.1_Introduction_and_Reference_Manual/main.html}, pdf = {https://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0409009}, abstract = {CrocoPat is an efficient, powerful and easy-to-use tool for manipulating relations of arbitrary arity, including directed graphs. This manual provides an introduction to and a reference for CrocoPat and its programming language RML. It includes several application examples, in particular from the analysis of structural models of software systems.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, annote = {Online: <a href="http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/TechRepPages/CSD-04-1338"> http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/TechRepPages/CSD-04-1338</a> <BR> A tutorial and user's guide for CrocoPat, defines and explains the syntax and semantics of the extended language. <BR> CrocoPat is available at: <a href="http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CrocoPat/"> http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CrocoPat/</a>}, institution = {Computer Science Division (EECS), University of California, Berkeley}, month = {July}, note = {Also: The Computing Research Repository (CoRR), cs.PL/0409009, September 2004}, }
    Additional Infos
    Online: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/TechRepPages/CSD-04-1338
    A tutorial and user's guide for CrocoPat, defines and explains the syntax and semantics of the extended language.
    CrocoPat is available at: http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CrocoPat/
  3. Dirk Beyer and Claus Lewerentz. CrocoPat: A Tool for Efficient Pattern Recognition in Large Object-Oriented Programs. Technical report I-04/2003, Institute of Computer Science, Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus, January 2003. Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension PDF
    BibTeX Entry
    @techreport{TR04-BTU03, author = {Dirk Beyer and Claus Lewerentz}, title = {{CrocoPat}: A Tool for Efficient Pattern Recognition in Large Object-Oriented Programs}, number = {I-04/2003}, year = {2003}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2003-BTU-TR04.CrocoPat_A_Tool_for_Efficient_Pattern_Recognition.in_Large_Object-Oriented_Programs.pdf}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, annote = {See WCRE03 [27] for proceedings version.}, institution = {Institute of Computer Science, Brandenburgische Technische Universit{\"a}t Cottbus}, month = {January}, }
    Additional Infos
    See WCRE03 [27] for proceedings version.
  4. Dirk Beyer, Claus Lewerentz, and Frank Simon. Flattening Inheritance Structures - OR - Getting the Right Picture of Large OO-Systems. Technical report I-12/2000, Institute of Computer Science, Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus, November 2000. Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension PDF
    Abstract
    More and more software systems are developed using the object oriented paradigm. Thus, large systems contain inheritance structures to provide a flexible and re-usable design and to allow for polymorphic method calls. This paper gives a detailed overview about the impact of using inheritance on measuring, understanding and using subclasses in such class systems. Usually, considering classes within an inheritance relation is reduced to the consideration of locally defined members of a class. This view might be incomplete or even misleading in some use cases. To provide an additional view on a given system we define a tool-supported flattening process which transforms an inheritance structure to a representation in which all the inherited members are explicit in each subclass. This representation provides additional insights for measuring, understanding, and developing large software systems.
    BibTeX Entry
    @techreport{TR12-BTU00, author = {Dirk Beyer and Claus Lewerentz and Frank Simon}, title = {Flattening Inheritance Structures -- OR -- {G}etting the Right Picture of Large {OO}-Systems}, number = {I-12/2000}, year = {2000}, pdf = {https://www.sosy-lab.org/research/pub/2000-BTU-TR12.Flattening_Inheritance_Structures.pdf}, abstract = {More and more software systems are developed using the object oriented paradigm. Thus, large systems contain inheritance structures to provide a flexible and re-usable design and to allow for polymorphic method calls. This paper gives a detailed overview about the impact of using inheritance on measuring, understanding and using subclasses in such class systems. Usually, considering classes within an inheritance relation is reduced to the consideration of locally defined members of a class. This view might be incomplete or even misleading in some use cases. To provide an additional view on a given system we define a tool-supported flattening process which transforms an inheritance structure to a representation in which all the inherited members are explicit in each subclass. This representation provides additional insights for measuring, understanding, and developing large software systems.}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, institution = {Institute of Computer Science, Brandenburgische Technische Universit{\"a}t Cottbus}, month = {November}, }
  5. Frank Simon and Dirk Beyer. Considering Inheritance, Overriding, Overloading and Polymorphism for Measuring C++ Sources. Technical report I-04/2000, Institute of Computer Science, Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus, May 2000. Link to this entry Keyword(s): Structural Analysis and Comprehension
    BibTeX Entry
    @techreport{TR04-BTU00, author = {Frank Simon and Dirk Beyer}, title = {Considering Inheritance, Overriding, Overloading and Polymorphism for Measuring {C++} Sources}, number = {I-04/2000}, year = {2000}, keyword = {Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, annote = {See IWSM00 [12] for proceedings version.}, institution = {Institute of Computer Science, Brandenburgische Technische Universit{\"a}t Cottbus}, month = {May}, }
    Additional Infos
    See IWSM00 [12] for proceedings version.

Theses and projects (PhD, MSc, BSc, Project)
  1. CheckDep: Tracking Software Dependencies. 2010. Link to this entry Keyword(s): Software Development Project, Structural Analysis and Comprehension Supplement
    BibTeX Entry
    @misc{CheckDep, title = {{{\sc CheckDep}}: Tracking Software Dependencies}, year = {2010}, url = {http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CheckDep/}, keyword = {Software Development Project,Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, role = {Principal designer, architect, and maintenance}, }
  2. DepDigger: Detecting Complex Low-Level Dependencies. 2010. Link to this entry Keyword(s): Software Development Project, Structural Analysis and Comprehension Supplement
    BibTeX Entry
    @misc{DepDigger, title = {{{\sc DepDigger}}: Detecting Complex Low-Level Dependencies}, year = {2010}, url = {http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/DepDigger/}, keyword = {Software Development Project,Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, role = {Principal designer, architect, and maintenance}, }
  3. CCVisu: Visual Clustering and Software-Structure Assessment. 2005. Link to this entry Keyword(s): Software Development Project, Structural Analysis and Comprehension Supplement
    BibTeX Entry
    @misc{CCVisu, title = {{{\sc CCVisu}}: Visual Clustering and Software-Structure Assessment}, year = {2005}, url = {http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CCVisu/}, keyword = {Software Development Project,Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, role = {Principal designer and implementer}, }
  4. CrocoPat: Relational Programming (for Software-Structure Analysis). 2003. Link to this entry Keyword(s): Software Development Project, Structural Analysis and Comprehension Supplement
    BibTeX Entry
    @misc{CrocoPat, title = {{{\sc CrocoPat}}: Relational Programming (for Software-Structure Analysis)}, year = {2003}, url = {http://www.sosy-lab.org/~dbeyer/CrocoPat/}, keyword = {Software Development Project,Structural Analysis and Comprehension}, role = {Principal designer and implementer}, }

Disclaimer:

This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All person copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.

Last modified: Thu Apr 18 01:04:44 2024 UTC