Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2003-02-20
2004-10-19
Mizrahi, Diane D. (Department: 2175)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C717S120000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06807548
ABSTRACT:
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system providing methods for facilitating development and maintenance of software applications or systems, with particular emphasis on a system and methodology providing selection expansion for refactoring of software systems.
2. Description of the Background Art
Before a digital computer may accomplish a desired task, it must receive an appropriate set of instructions. Executed by the computer's microprocessor, these instructions, collectively referred to as a “computer program,” direct the operation of the computer. Expectedly, the computer must understand the instructions which it receives before it may undertake the specified activity.
Owing to their digital nature, computers essentially only understand “machine code,” i.e., the low-level, minute instructions for performing specific tasks—the sequence of ones and zeros that are interpreted as specific instructions by the computer's microprocessor. Since machine language or machine code is the only language computers actually understand, all other programming languages represent ways of structuring human language so that humans can get computers to perform specific tasks. While it is possible for humans to compose meaningful programs in machine code, practically all software development today employs one or more of the available programming languages. The most widely used programming languages are the “high-level” languages, such C, Pascal, or more recently Java. These languages allow data structures and algorithms to be expressed in a style of writing that is easily read and understood by fellow programmers.
A program called a “compiler” translates these instructions into the requisite machine language. In the context of this translation, the program written in the high-level language is called the “source code” or source program. The ultimate output of the compiler is a compiled module such as a compiled C “object module,” which includes instructions for execution ultimately by a target processor, or a compiled Java class, which includes bytecodes for execution ultimately by a Java virtual machine. A Java compiler generates platform-neutral “bytecodes”—an architecturally neutral, intermediate format designed for deploying application code efficiently to multiple platforms.
Conventionally, creation of a software program or system includes creation of individual source code modules. This approach simplifies program development by dividing functionality available in the program into separate source modules. When multiple source modules are employed for creating a program, interdependencies between the individual modules often exist. Program logic in one module can, for instance, reference variables, methods, objects, and symbols imported from another module. By the very same token, that module can also export its own methods, objects, and symbols, making them available for use by other modules.
“Visual” development environments, such as Borland's JBuilder®, are the preferred application development environments for quickly creating production applications. Such environments are characterized by an integrated development environment (IDE) providing a form painter, a property getter/setter manager (“inspector”), a project manager, a tool palette (with objects which the user can drag and drop on forms), an editor, and a compiler. In general operation, the user “paints” objects on one or more forms, using the form painter. Attributes and properties of the objects on the forms can be modified using the property manager or inspector. In conjunction with this operation, the user attaches or associates program code with particular objects on screen (e.g., button object); the editor is used to edit program code which has been attached to particular objects. After the program code has been developed, the compiler is used to generate binary code (e.g., Java bytecode) for execution on a machine (e.g., a Java virtual machine).
Although visual development environments enable applications to be created quickly, problems remain with the development, implementation, and maintenance of production applications. One problem is that when a large software program or application evolves over time it is common that the initial design gets lost as features that were not in the original specification are added to the application. One way of dealing with this problem of making changes is to design everything with the maximum amount of flexibility. However, this will often lead to unnecessary complexity in the software application, as it is unknown beforehand which parts of the application will require this additional flexibility. Irrespective of how well a system is initially designed or developed, the system is typically modified from time to time during its useful life to improve performance, to accommodate changing needs, to make the system easier to maintain, or for various other reasons. However, during the process of adding features not envisioned in the original specification or otherwise making modifications to the system, one must track how particular terms are defined and used by the system to properly develop the system modifications and to avoid introducing errors during this development process. Specifically, because of interdependencies between modules, when a particular source module is modified (e.g., edited by a developer), the developer must ensure that such modifications are compatible with the other modules of the program. A particular concern is, therefore, that a given change might “break” the system, because the change is incompatible with other, dependent modules of the system.
“Refactoring” is a practice of making structured changes to software applications or systems which add the desired flexibility, but keep the functionality of the system the same. Refactoring involves taking small individual steps that are well defined and that can be applied in succession to yield a more significant change in the application. For example, a developer may wish to perform a “rename refactoring” to change the name of a particular module (e.g., a class name in a Java program). In order to make this change, the user must locate the definition of this class (i.e., the source code for the class) as well as all uses of the class in other portions of the system. In the case of a class name in a Java program, the class name is typically used not only for defining a variable, but also for constructing instances (or objects) of that class and accessing static members of the class (i.e., class variables). Another example of refactoring may involve moving a specified class to a new package (referred to as “move refactoring”).
Refactoring of a system may be small or extensive, but even small changes can introduce errors or “bugs” into the system. Accordingly, refactoring must be done correctly and completely in order to be effective. Good refactoring requires a mechanism for quickly and accurately identifying definitions and usage of a given symbol in a plurality of source files. The “symbols” that may be involved in refactoring include, for example, package names, class names, interfaces, methods, fields, variables, and properties. Identification of definitions and usage of a given symbol enables refactoring to be performed responsibly and durably so that no bugs are introduced and no behavior is changed beyond the desired improvements in features, performance, and/or maintainability.
The simplest approach for handling refactoring is to use a textual search and replace. However, this approach has the disadvantages of being both slow and inaccurate as refactoring i
Borland Software Corporation
Mizrahi Diane D.
Riddle G. Mack
Smart John A.
Wu Yicun
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