Extracting code fragments that implement functionality from source programs

Abstract

For the past half a century, programmers have already written billion of lines of codes in different software systems. Software managers do not expect the past knowledge and experience embodied in their software portfolio to be thrown away. The problem we are faced with today is that a large amount of these codes that have been written are in a haphazard way. A great deal of difficulty is faced in identifying the section of codes that implement functionality to help programmers in maintaining existing systems or to implement new systems. In this research project, code fragments that implement functionality from source programs are extracted. It is based on the hypothesis that a program interacts with its environment through accepting and delivering information from and to its environment respectively. As such, the functionality in a program is achieved through its input/output statements.