Refactoring for paradigm change in the interactive data language

Gabriel L Marquez, University of Texas at El Paso

Abstract

Paradigm migration is the transformation of code developed under a school of thought and design revamped to fit a completely different school of thought and design. A non-trivial paradigm migration of legacy code in the procedural paradigm into an object-oriented paradigm results in improved maintenance, adaptability, extensibility, and quality. Existing algorithms that identify objects or object-like features in procedural code ([Canf1996], [Snee1992], [Tan1995], and [Fant1999]) result in either a list of potential objects or pseudo-objects within the same procedural paradigm. Object identification by itself does not provide a methodical approach to completely migrate an entire system from the procedural paradigm into an object-oriented equivalent. Refactoring [Fowl1999] has provided the software maintenance community a documented means of redesigning a system through incremental changes for the purpose of maintenance. This thesis identifies new refactorings whose purpose is the reengineering of code in the procedural paradigm written in the Interactive Data Language (IDL) into its object-oriented equivalent. These and previously documented refactorings have been applied to the Cassini Viewing Utility (CASVU), a software tool currently in use at research institutions for the analysis of Cassini imaging instrument datasets.

Subject Area

Computer science

Recommended Citation

Marquez, Gabriel L, "Refactoring for paradigm change in the interactive data language" (2007). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI1446304.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI1446304

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