Multilanguage Detection of Design Pattern Instances

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2025

Authors

Andrade, H (Author) Other; João Bispo (Author) FEUP; Filipe Figueiredo Correia (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Journal of Software: Evolution and Process

Vol. 37

ISSN: 2047-7481

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 0 Citations

Scopus - 0 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-018-11Q

DOI: 10.1002/smr.2738

Abstract (EN): Code comprehension is often supported by source code analysis tools that provide more abstract views over software systems, such as those detecting design patterns. These tools encompass analysis of source code and ensuing extraction of relevant information. However, the analysis of the source code is often specific to the target programming language. We propose DP-LARA, a multilanguage pattern detection tool that uses the multilanguage capability of the LARA framework to support finding pattern instances in a code base. LARA provides a virtual AST, which is common to multiple OOP programming languages, and DP-LARA then performs code analysis of detecting pattern instances on this abstract representation. We evaluate the detection performance and consistency of DP-LARA with a few software projects. Results show that a multilanguage approach does not compromise detection performance, and DP-LARA is consistent across the languages we tested it for (i.e., Java and C/C++). Moreover, by providing a virtual AST as the abstract representation, we believe to have decreased the effort of extending the tool to new programming languages and maintaining existing ones.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 18