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European Software Engineering Conference

ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on Foundations of Software Engineering

ESEC 1997, SIGSOFT FSE 1997: Software Engineering — ESEC/FSE'97 pp 414–431Cite as

A C++ data model supporting reachability analysis and dead code detection

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1301))

Abstract

A software repository provides a central information source for understanding and reengineering code in a software project. Complex reverse engineering tools can be built by analyzing information stored in the repository without reparsing the original source code. The most critical design aspect of a repository is its data model, which directly affects how effectively the repository supports various analysis tasks. This paper focuses on the design rationales behind a data model for a C++ software repository that supports reachability analysis and dead code detection at the declaration level. These two tasks are frequently needed in large software projects to help remove excess software baggage, select regression tests, and support software reuse studies. The language complexity introduced by class inheritance, friendships, and template instantiations in C++ requires a carefully designed model to catch all necessary dependencies for correct reachability analysis. We examine the major design decisions and their consequences in our model and illustrate how future software repositories can be evaluated for completeness at a selected abstraction level. Examples are given to illustrate how our model also supports variants of reachability analysis: impact analysis, class visibility analysis, and dead code detection. Finally, we discuss the implementation and experience of our analysis tools on a C++ software project.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. AT&T Labs — Research, 180 Park Ave., 07932, Florham Park, NJ, USA

    Yih-Farn R. Chen, Emden R. Gansner & Eleftherios Koutsofios

Authors
  1. Yih-Farn R. Chen
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  2. Emden R. Gansner
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  3. Eleftherios Koutsofios
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Editor information

Mehdi Jazayeri Helmut Schauer

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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Chen, YF.R., Gansner, E.R., Koutsofios, E. (1997). A C++ data model supporting reachability analysis and dead code detection. In: Jazayeri, M., Schauer, H. (eds) Software Engineering — ESEC/FSE'97. ESEC SIGSOFT FSE 1997 1997. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1301. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63531-9_28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63531-9_28

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-63531-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69592-9

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