Object Identification in Legacy Code as a Grouping Problem

Maintenance is undoubtedly the most effort-consuming activity in software production whereby the entropy of legacy systems (e.g., due to redundancies, poor modularity and lack of up-to-date documentation) is a major challenge. Migration of legacy systems to object-oriented technology is often considered by many organizations as a suitable way out, however, the cost and the complexity of the task may dissuade the decision-makers. As a contribution to the automation, complete or partial, of the migration process, our paper presents two algorithms for identifying objects in procedural code, a task which is crucial within the entire process. The suggested algorithms are experimentally evaluated, using the examples of three existing systems.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2002
• Where: COMPSAC
• Authors: Houari A. Sahraoui, Petko Valtchev, Idrissa Konkobo, Shiqiang Shen
• Keywords: COMPSAC 2002, Effort-consuming Activity, Legacy Systems, Major Challenge, Software Engineering