A Scalable Log Differencing Visualisation Applied to COBOL Refactoring

Céline Deknop, Kim Mens, Alexandre Bergel, Johan Fabry, Vadim Zaytsev

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)
175 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Large code refactoring projects can consist of hundreds of refactoring rules that are applied iteratively to make code easier to maintain. Visualising the refactoring process can help engineers and stakeholders understand how chains of refactorings were applied and to gain more confidence in the produced result. An apparently suitable existing visualisation using log-based behavioural differencing suffers from scalability issues when applied to industrial-size cases. We propose an adapted visualisation tool that highlights those parts that really changed in-between iterations of a large refactoring process and collapses those parts that remain stable. We show that our alternative visualisation scales well on large logs of a process with many possible refactoring chains, of which significant parts are shared. Consequently, it allows engineers and stakeholders to quickly answer relevant questions about what happened during the refactoring process.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2021 Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT)
Place of PublicationPiscataway, NJ
PublisherIEEE
Pages1-11
ISBN (Electronic)978-1-6654-3144-6
ISBN (Print)978-1-6654-3145-3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Nov 2021
EventWorking Conference on Software Visualization, VISSOFT 2021 - Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Duration: 27 Sept 202128 Sept 2021

Conference

ConferenceWorking Conference on Software Visualization, VISSOFT 2021
Abbreviated titleVISSOFT 2021
Country/TerritoryLuxembourg
City Luxembourg
Period27/09/2128/09/21

Keywords

  • 2022 OA procedure
  • Visualisation
  • Logs
  • Refactoring
  • COBOL
  • Scalability
  • Industrial
  • Differencing

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