Hunter: Next-generation code reuse for Java

Abstract

In many common scenarios, programmers need to implement functionality that is already provided by some third party library. This paper presents a tool called Hunter that facilitates code reuse by finding relevant methods in large code bases and automatically synthesizing any necessary wrapper code. Since Hunter internally uses advanced program synthesis technology, it can automatically reuse existing methods even when code adaptation is necessary. We have implemented Hunter as an Eclipse plug-in and evaluate it by (a) comparing it against S6, a state-of-The-Art code reuse tool, and (b) performing a user study. Our evaluation shows that Hunter compares favorably with S6 and increases programmer productivity.