Type Access Analysis: Towards Informed Interface Design

Abstract

Programs designed from scratch often start with just a set of classes. Classes can be instantiated and so deliver the objects that are the carriers of information and function. In languages like Java and C++, classes also define types, so that they are sufficient to write a fully functional, type-checked program. Abstract classes and interfaces, which cannot be used for object creation, but which can serve to structure and decouple the code, are then either added later (as a result of refactoring) or never. One impediment to designing and introducing such type abstractions (generalizations) retroactively is that it is unclear how they can be used in a program, or what they should contain in order to be usable. However, this knowledge is, so we argue, completely contained in the program — it only needs to be unveiled. With our Type Access Analyzer (TAA) tool, we collect information useful for the design of type abstractions (abstract classes and interfaces) and their use, and present it to the developer for performing type-related refactorings in an informed manner.

Cite as:

Friedrich Steimann, Philip Mayer, “Type Access Analysis: Towards Informed Interface Design”, Journal of Object Technology, Volume 6, no. 9 (October 2007), pp. 147-164, doi:10.5381/jot.2007.6.9.a8.