A Category-theoretic Approach to Syntactic Software Merging

Software merging is a common and essential activity during the lifespan of large-scale software systems. Traditional textual merge techniques are inadequate for detecting syntactic merge conflicts. In this paper, we propose a domain-independent approach for syntactic software merging that exploits the graph-based structure(s) of programs. We use morphisms between fuzzy graphs to capture the relationships between the structural elements of the programs to be merged, and apply a truth ordering lattice to express inconsistencies and evolutionary properties as we compute the merge. We demonstrate the approach with a three-way consolidation merge in a commercial software system; in particular, we show how analyzing merged call structures can help developers gain a better understanding and control of software evolution.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: ICSM
• Authors: Nan Niu, Steve M. Easterbrook, Mehrdad Sabetzadeh
• Keywords: ICSM 2005, Software Engineering, Software Merging, Syntactic Merge Conflicts, Textual Merge Techniques