Reengineering of object-oriented software into aspect-oriented ones supported by class models

Abstract

Object-Oriented Software Reengineering (OO) into Aspect-Oriented Software (AO) is a challenging task, mainly when it is done by means of refactorings in the code-level. The reason is that direct transformation from OO code to AO one needs of several design decisions due to differences of both paradigms. To make this transformation more controlled and systematic, we propose the use of concern-based refactorings, supported by class models. It allows design decisions to be made during the reengineering process, improving the quality of the final models. An example is presented to assess the applicability of the proposed refactorings. Moreover, we also present a case study, in which AO class models created based on the refactorings are compared with another obtained without the aid of them. The data obtained indicated that the use of the proposed refactorings improved the efficacy and productivity of maintenance groups during the process of software reengineering.