Program and interface slicing for reverse engineering

Abstract

A case is presented for the use of conventional and interface slicing as enabling mechanisms for numerous reverse engineering and reengineering tasks. The authors first discuss the applicability of conventional slicing to algorithm extraction and design recovery at statement-level granularity. They then present interface slicing and show how it provides similar capabilities at module-level granularity. Module is a general term for a collection of subprograms, possibly with information hiding mechanisms: It includes but is not limited to Ada packages. Component refers to a module in a reuse repository. A component is thus a code asset of a repository, possibly also incorporated into a program. Ada is used for the example, as Ada's features facilitate the types of transformations which are invoked. >