Master Thesis
Marea A Tool for Breaking Dependency Cycles Between Packages Master Thesis Bledar Aga Philosophisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultat¨ der Universitat¨ Bern 27. Januar 2015 Prof. Dr. Oscar Nierstrasz MSc. Andrea Caracciolo Software Composition Group Institut fur¨ Informatik und angewandte Mathematik University of Bern, Switzerland Abstract Placing classes, methods, dependencies in wrong packages may generate architectural problems such as dependency cycles. Developers, maintainers and testers very often have to deal with dependency cycles that compromise the modularity of their systems, prevent proper reuse, increase the cost of maintenance and increase the cost of tests. We argue that reengineers do not have adequate tools that support removing the dependencies forming cycles at the package level. We propose Marea, a tool that helps reengineers maintain their object- oriented systems without cyclic dependencies between packages. In our approach, we analyse object-oriented systems by detecting and suggesting to the user which refactoring operations should be used to remove undesirable dependencies. Marea suggests the best sequence of refactoring operations based on the results of a model-based simulation. Moreover, the best path is identified by applying a customised profit function adapted to the user’s needs. Our approach has been validated on real-world Java open source systems. Keywords: Dependency cycles, package cycles, refactoring simulation, software analysis, software quality. 1 Contents 1 Introduction4 1.1 Solution in a Nutshell...........................5 1.2 Benefits..................................5 1.3 Outline..................................6 2 Cyclic Dependencies7 2.1 Terminology................................7 2.2 Types of dependencies..........................8 2.3 Dependency Cycles at the Package Level................ 11 2.4 The Origin of Dependency Cycles...................
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