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Program Comprehension in Preprocessor-Based Software

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Computer Safety, Reliability, and Security (SAFECOMP 2012)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 7613))

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Abstract

To adapt to heterogeneous hardware, software of embedded systems provides customization capacities. Typically, this customization is achieved using conditional compilation with preprocessors. However, preprocessor usage can lead to obfuscated source code that can be difficult to comprehend, which in turn cause increased maintenance costs, bugs, and security vulnerabilities. To profit from the benefit of preprocessors usage, we need to improve their comprehensibility. In this paper, we describe how program comprehension can be improved and, to that end, measured. We show that reliably measuring program comprehension requires considerably effort. However, the benefit is that we can apply concepts that have proven to improve program comprehension, and thus can e.g. improve maintainability, reliability, and security of source code.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Magdeburg, Germany

    Janet Siegmund, Norbert Siegmund, Jana Fruth, Sven Kuhlmann, Jana Dittmann & Gunter Saake

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  1. Janet Siegmund
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  2. Norbert Siegmund
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  3. Jana Fruth
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  4. Sven Kuhlmann
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  5. Jana Dittmann
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  6. Gunter Saake
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Technische und Betriebliche Informationssysteme (ITI), Otto-von-Guericke-Universität, Fakultät für Informatik, Universitätsplatz 2, 39106, Magdeburg, Germany

    Frank Ortmeier

  2. SELEX ELSAG, Liverpool Innovation Park, Edge Lane, Fairfield, L7 9NJ, Liverpool, UK

    Peter Daniel

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Siegmund, J., Siegmund, N., Fruth, J., Kuhlmann, S., Dittmann, J., Saake, G. (2012). Program Comprehension in Preprocessor-Based Software. In: Ortmeier, F., Daniel, P. (eds) Computer Safety, Reliability, and Security. SAFECOMP 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7613. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33675-1_49

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33675-1_49

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-33674-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-33675-1

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