Detecting higher-level similarity patterns in programs

Cloning in software systems is known to create problems during software maintenance. Several techniques have been proposed to detect the same or similar code fragments in software, so-called simple clones. While the knowledge of simple clones is useful, detecting design-level similarities in software could ease maintenance even further, and also help us identify reuse opportunities. We observed that recurring patterns of simple clones – so-called structural clones - often indicate the presence of interesting design-level similarities. An example would be patterns of collaborating classes or components. Finding structural clones that signify potentially useful design information requires efficient techniques to analyze the bulk of simple clone data and on-trivial inferences based on the abstracted information. In this paper, we describe a practical solution to the problem of detecting some basic, but useful, types of design-level similarities such as groups of highly similar classes ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: SIGSOFT
• Authors: Hamid Abdul Basit, Stan Jarzabek
• Keywords: Design-level Similarities, SIGSOFT 2005, Simple Clones, Software Engineering, Structural Clone