C-CLR: a tool for navigating highly configurable system software

In order to accommodate the spectrum of configuration options currently required for competitive system infrastructures, many systems leverage heavy usage of C preprocessor controlled conditional compilation. Inherent costs associated with this heavy preprocessor usage include both the impaired readability of the base system, and the reduced reusability of the configuration code. Our proposed solution, C-CLR, allows developers to sift through views of a system based on configuration options. Configuration-specific views improve readability of the system as a whole by including only relevant code. They also support reusability by aiding aspect mining through easy navigation to relevant configuration options, and automated identification of equivalent blocks of code within conditionally compiled segments. Categories and Subject Descriptors D.2.3 [Software Engineering]: Coding Tools and Techniques; D.3.3 [Programming Languages]: Language Constructs and Features; D2.6 [Software Engineerin...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: AOSD
• Authors: Nieraj Singh, Celina Gibbs, Yvonne Coady
• Keywords: AOSD 2007, Conditional Compilation, Configuration Options, Preprocessor, Software Engineering