vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
1
TITLE
PAGE
DECLARATION
ii
DEDICATION
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
iv
ABSTRACT
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
vii
LIST OF TABLES
xiv
LIST OF FIGURES
xv
LIST OF ACRONYMS AND SYMBOLS
xvii
LIST OF APPENDICES
xviii
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Introduction
1
1.2
Background of the Research Problem
2
1.3
Statement of the Problem
3
1.4
Objective of the Study
4
1.5
Scope of Work
5
1.6
Importance of the Study
5
1.7
Thesis Outline
6
1.8
Summary
7
viii
2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Introduction
8
2.2
Introduction of Software Maintenance
9
2.2.1
Software Maintenance Categories
11
2.2.2
Problem in Software Maintenance
12
2.3
Program Understanding
13
2.3.1
Program Understanding Support Mechanism
15
2.3.1.1
Unaided Browsing
15
2.3.1.2
Leveraging Corporate Knowledge and
16
Experience
2.3.1.3
2.3.2
Computer Aided Technique
Program Understanding via Reverse
16
17
Engineering
2.4
Reverse Engineering
18
2.4.1
Reverse Engineering Concept and Definition
19
2.4.2
Challenges in Reverse Engineering
21
2.4.3
Program Understanding in Reverse Engineering
23
Automating Approaches
2.5
Parsing Technique
24
2.5.1
Two Way of Parsing
25
2.5.2
Parsing Methods
26
2.5.2.1
Directionality
26
2.5.2.2
Search Techniques
27
2.5.2.3
Left Corner Parsing
28
2.5.3
2.6
Time Requirement
28
Extraction Process
29
2.6.1
Pattern Matching
29
2.6.2
Regular Expression
30
2.6.2.1
32
Basic Concepts
ix
2.6.2.2
Portable Operating System Interface
34
(POSIX) Syntax
2.6.3
Pattern Matching and Regular Expression in
36
Artifact Extraction
2.7
2.8
2.9
Abstraction Process
36
2.7.1
Graphical Representation
38
2.7.2
Textual Representation
38
Concept Location
40
2.8.1
Concept Location in Source Code
41
2.8.2
Static Concept Location Techniques
43
2.8.2.1
String Pattern Matching Technique
44
2.8.2.2
Dependency Search Technique
44
2.8.2.3
IR-based Technique
45
Code Query in Reverse Engineering Tools
45
2.9.1
Windows Grep
46
2.9.2
Rigi
47
2.9.3
2.9.4
3
2.9.2.1
Rigi Features
48
2.9.2.2
Rigi Query Technique
49
CodeSurfer
49
2.9.3.1
CodeSurfer Features
51
2.9.3.2
CodeSurfer Query Technique
52
The Comparative Evaluation of Existing Tools
53
2.10
Proposed Solution
54
2.11
Summary
55
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1
Introduction
56
3.2
Operational Framework
57
3.2.1
58
Phase 1: Formulation of Research Problem
x
3.2.1.1
Literature Reviews
58
3.2.1.1.1
59
Understanding the Need
of Change Request
Process
3.2.1.1.2
Understanding Structured
59
Programming Concept
3.2.1.1.3
Understanding the
60
Extraction Process
3.2.1.1.4
Understanding the
60
Abstraction Technique
3.2.1.2
Analysis Current Approach and
60
Existing Tools
3.2.1.3
3.2.2
3.2.3
3.2.4
4
Research Proposal
61
Phase 2: Prototype Development
61
3.2.2.1
Code Query Model Design
62
3.2.2.2
Code Query Prototype Development
62
Phase 3: Implementation and Evaluation
63
3.2.3.1
Supporting Tools
64
3.2.3.2
Choose Case Study
64
3.2.3.3
Experimental
65
3.2.3.4
Evaluation
65
Phase 4: Research Report
66
3.3
Research Assumption
66
3.4
Summary
66
CODE QUERY MODEL
4.1
Introduction
68
4.2
Overview of Code Query
68
4.3
Code Query in Structured Programming
70
xi
4.3.1
Structured Programming Concept
70
4.3.1.1
72
Relationship in Structured
Programming
4.3.1.2
Dependencies in Structured
73
Programming
4.3.1.2
Observations about Structured
73
Programming
4.4
A Proposed Code Query
74
4.4.1
Keyword
75
4.4.2
Extraction of Artifacts
75
4.4.2.1
Parser
76
4.4.2.2
Pattern Matching
77
4.4.2.3
Regular Expression
77
4.4.3
Abstraction of Artifacts
78
4.4.3.1
Code Query in Textual Representation
79
4.4.3.1
Code Query in Graphical
80
Representation
4.5
5
Summary
81
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CODE QUERY
5.1
Introduction
82
5.2
Code Query Design
82
5.2.1
Code Query Architecture
83
5.2.1.1
Problem Change Request
84
5.2.1.2
Artifacts Repository
84
5.2.1.3
Extraction Process
85
5.2.1.4
Abstraction Process
87
5.2.2
Code Query Use Case
87
5.2.3
Code Query Class Interactions
91
xii
6
5.3
Code Query Implementation and User Interfaces
96
5.4
Other Supporting Tools
101
5.5
Summary
101
EVALUATION
6.1
Introduction
102
6.2
Case Study
103
6.2.1
Outlines of Case Study
103
6.2.2
GI Project Briefing
104
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
7
Controlled Experimental
104
6.3.1
Subject and Environment
105
6.3.2
Questionnaires
105
6.3.3
Experimental Procedures
106
6.3.4
Possible Threats and Validity
106
The Analysis
107
6.4.1
Analysis of the Controlled Experiment
107
6.4.2
Analysis of the Usability Study
110
Finding Analysis
113
6.5.1
Acceptance Tool
113
6.5.2
Qualitative Evaluation
114
Summary
116
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
7.1
Introduction
117
7.2
Contribution
118
7.3
Research Limitation and Future Works
118
7.4
Summary
119
xiii
REFERENCES
120
Appendices A-B
124-134
xiv
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE NO.
TITLE
PAGE
2.1
Quantifiers of Regular Expression
33
2.2
Metacharacters for BRE Standard
35
2.3
Features of The Static Concept Location
Techniques
43
2.4
Existing Features of current tools
54
4.1
Relationship Types
72
4.2
Regular Expression for Match Common
Programming Language
78
6.1
Job versus frequencies
108
6.2
Year of Experience in Software Development
109
6.3
Year of Experience in Software Maintenance
109
6.4
Mean of scores for Code Query
111
6.5
Mean of Usefulness of Tools
112
6.6
Mean Comparison between Tools
114
6.7
Existing Features of Code Query Systems
115
xv
LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE NO.
TITLE
PAGE
2.1
Software Maintenance Process
9
2.2
Reverse Engineering
19
2.3
Forward Engineering
20
2.4
Overview of Parser Process
25
2.5
Most concept location techniques rely on an
intermediate representation of the source code
41
2.6
Window Grep Search Results
47
2.7
View produced by Rigi via RigiEdit
49
2.8
CodeSurfer Project Viewer
50
2.9
Finder Viewer
52
3.1
Operational Framework
57
4.1
Overview of Code Query Model
69
4.2
Structured Programming – Tax Calculation
71
4.3
Function Relationship
72
4.4
Code Query Approach
74
4.5
Metrics on the important files
79
xvi
4.6
Graphical presentation for function and variables
of vehicle simulation
81
5.1
Code Query Architecture
83
5.2
Use Case Diagram of Code Query System
88
5.3
Code Query Class Diagram
91
5.4
Code Query Sequence Diagrams
92
5.5
Code Query Process Algorithm Flowchart
94
5.6
Code Query Introduction Screen
96
5.7
First user interface of Code Query
97
5.8
File Path and the Keyword Field
97
5.9
Textual Representation
98
5.10
Graphical Representation
99
5.11
Low Level of Abstraction - Source Code Viewer
99
5.12
High Level of Abstraction - Detail Relationship of
Artifacts
100
6.1
Usefulness and Usability of Tools
110
6.2
Usefulness of Tool
112
xvii
LIST OF ACRONYMS AND SYMBOLS
BRE
-
Basic Regular Expressions
GUI
-
Graphical User Interface
IEEE
-
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc
LSI
-
Latent Semantic Indexing
PBS
-
Portable Bookshelf
PCR
-
Program Change Request
RUP
-
Rational Unified Process
SDLC
-
Systems Development Life Cycle
SHriMP
-
Simple Hierarchical Multi-Perspective
SLC
-
Software Life Cycle
SLCM
-
Software Life Cycle Model
SLCP
-
Software Life Cycle Process
UML
-
Unified Modeling Language
WWW
-
World Wide Web
xviii
LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX
TITLE
PAGE
A
Questionnaire On Usability Of Software
Understanding Tool
124
B
User Manual
130