Binding object models to source code: An approach to object-oriented re-architecting

Object-oriented re-architecting (OORA) concerns identification of objects in procedural code with the goal to transform a procedural into an object-oriented program. We have developed a method to address the problem of object identification from two different directions: I) building an object model of the application based on system documentation to ensure the creation of application-semantic classes; and 2) analyzing the source code to identify potential class candidates on the basis of compound data types and data flow analysis. Object model classes are bound to class candidates to prepare a forward biased and thus semantically meaningful program transformation at the source code level. In this paper we define a similarity measure for classes to enables the binding process. We also describe the constraints and benefits of human intervention in this process. We have applied this method to a real-world embedded software system to identify potential classes; results from the case study are given in the paper.