Prism

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Prism
A Prism for research in software modularity
through aspect mining
pattern recognition for aspect mining
Charles Zhang and Hans-Arno Jacobsen Middleware
Systems Research Group University of Toronto
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What is Prism?

• Goal A platform discovers aspects in very large
  systems composed in a variety of languages.
  Consists of both backend engine and user
  interface.
• Core A framework supports arbitrary language
  patterns and different pattern matching
  algorithms.
• Language pattern
• Lexical pattern regular expressions
• Usage of types where is my typeA?
• Execution flow where are my actions?

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Prism Architecture A set of extension points

• Prism fingerprint A pattern definition specified
  by the user.
• Prism footprint A encapsulation of the location
  information of a particular fingerprint.
• Prism task A customizable assembly of Prism
  fingerprints which represents a more complex
  pattern.
• Prism algorithm An algorithm responsible for
  matching a particular pattern and generating the
  associated footprint.

Prism fingerprint
Prism footprint
Prism Engine
Prism Task 1
Prism Algorithm
Prism fingerprint
Prism footprint
Prism Task 2
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Prism Eclipse Plug-in
Prism footprints
Prism tasks
Fingerprints
Projects
Java Editor
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Configuring a Prism Fingerprint

• A Prism fingerprint consists of any combinations
  of lexical patterns and type patterns.
• Examples of type pattern
• Referencing all types in a particular package.
• All types in package org.omg.CORBA
• Referencing all methods of any class type
• All call sites for all methods of class
  org.omg.CORBA.Any
• AspectJ joinpoint definitions.
• Examples of lexical pattern
• Regular expressions

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Prism Fingerprint Configuration
Fingerprint name
Type pattern listing
Type browser
Regular expression listing
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Prism footprint

• Results of matching fingerprints in the source
  code.
• Example A fingerprint defined as any method
  defined in the class java.util.Hashtable, of
  which the name starts by get has the
  following footprints.