Paper Info
Title
[Engineering Paper] Analyzing the Evolution of Preprocessor-Based Variability: A Tale of a Thousand and One Scripts.
Abstract
Highly configurable software systems allow the efficient and reliable development of similar software variants based on a common code base. The C preprocessor CPP, which uses source code annotations that enable conditional compilation, is a simple powerful text-based tool for implementing such systems. However, since annotations interfere with the actual source code, the CPP has often been accused of being a source of errors and increased maintenance effort. In our research, we have been curious about whether high-level patterns of CPP misuse (i.e., code smells) can be identified, how they evolve, and whether they really hinder maintenance. To support this research, we started a simple tool which over the years evolved into a powerful toolchain. This evolution was possible because our toolchain is not monolithic, but is composed of many small tools connected by scripts and communicating via files. Moreover, we reused existing tools whenever possible and developed our own solutions only as a last resort. In this paper, we report our experiences of building this toolchain. In particular, we present design decisions we made and lessons learned, both positive and negative ones. We hope that this not only stimulates discussion and (in the best case) attracts more researchers in using our tools. Rather, we also want to encourage others to put emphasis on building tools instead of considering them yet another research prototype.
Year
Venue
Field
2018
SCAM
Programming language,Source code,Computer science,Software system,Preprocessor,Software,Conditional compilation,Code smell,Toolchain,Scripting language
DocType
Citations 
PageRank 
Conference
0
0.34
References 
Authors
0
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Sandro Schulze125923.43
Wolfram Fenske2618.04