Cloning in DSLs: Experiments with OCL

Abstract

Code cloning (i.e., similar code fragments) in general purpose languages has been a major focus of the research community. For domain specific languages (DSLs), cloning related to domain-specific graphical languages has also been considered. This paper focuses on domain-specific textual languages in an effort to evaluate cloning in these DSLs where instances of such DSLs allow for less code to express domain-specific features, but potentially more frequently used code constructs. We suggest potential application scenarios of using clone detection for the maintenance of DSL code. We introduce a clone detection mechanism using a Model Driven Engineering (MDE) based approach to evaluate the extent of cloning in an initial DSL (i.e., the Object Constraint Language (OCL)). The evaluation reveals the existence of cloning in OCL, which suggests the relevance and potential applications of clone detection and analysis in DSLs. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.