Автоматизированная миграция программного кода, основанная на семантическом подходе: пилотный прототип

Automated Semantics-Driven Source Code Migration: a Pilot Prototype

Article's language
English
Abstract
The purpose of the study is to demonstrate the feasibility of automated code migration to a new set of programming libraries. Code migration is a common task in modern software projects. For example, it may arise when a project should be ported to a new library or to a new platform. The developed method and tool are based on the previously created by the authors formalism for describing libraries semantics. The formalism specifies a library behavior using a system of extended finite state machines (EFSM). The mentioned EFSMs are a foundation of the code migration method. This paper outlines the metamodel designed to specify library descriptions and proposes easy to use domain-specific language (DSL), which can be used to define models for particular libraries. The mentioned metamodel directly forms the code migration method which is also described in the paper. A process of migration splits into five steps, and for each step the algorithm was developed. Models and algorithms were implemented in the prototype of an automated code migration tool. The prototype was tested on both artificial code examples and several real-world open source projects. Results of the experiment indicate that code migration can be successfully automated with developed tool acting as the proof of concept. Models and methods designed form a basis for more powerful migration methods and full-featured automated code migration tools.
DOI
10.31144/si.2307-6410.2017.n10.p67-76
Pages
67-76
File
Number