Pattern-Based Design Recovery with SPOOL

Abstract

Automated tool support is crucial for the comprehension of large-scale, object-oriented software and involves compressing and clustering the vast amount of information that is contained in the source code. However, software comprehension demands more than the mere understanding of the static structure of the source code. The clear representation of the system’s physical and logical structure is still insufficient for a developer to fully comprehend the purpose of a given piece of software (Beck and Johnson, 1994). Underlining this statement, Booch estimates that “it takes a professional programmer about 6–9 months to become really proficient with a larger framework,” and he adds that “this rate increases rather exponentially to the complexity of software” (Booch, 1996). We agree with Beck and Johnson that one reason for this gigantic effort for software comprehension and evolution is that “existing design notations focus on communicating the what of designs, but almost completely ignore the why.” They argue that comprehension of the rationale behind the design decisions is equally as much important as understanding of the software’s structural and logical constituents. Yet, for the most part, current reverse engineering tools completely neglect recovery of the design rationale.