Code quality improvement

摘要

Techniques enabling an end-user to specify complex concepts consisting of code abstractions, design abstractions and architectural abstractions in rule form are disclosed. In one embodiment, a graphical user interface is provided to guide a user through the process of entering concept specification information in order to define concepts, including the provision of one or more code snippets that are subsequently analyzed to assist the user in specifying the concept. The resulting rules or concept signatures are evaluated by a rule engine to determine the degree to which the underlying concepts are reflected in a given set of code. Recommended measures that need to be taken for transforming code to satisfy a concept may be provided subsequent to the analysis of the code. In this manner, code quality may be improved through systematic analysis of targeted code to demonstrate adherence (or non-adherence, as the case may be) to user-defined concepts.

主权项

1. A method for improving quality of a code listing, the method comprising:
receiving a code listing; receiving concept specification information corresponding to a concept to be identified in the code listing, the concept specification information comprising a code pattern illustrating the concept, wherein the code pattern comprises a predetermined length of source code or object code that defines the concept; using the concept specification information to define a rule by:
parsing the code pattern to
generate pre-configured prompts specific to the code pattern, andidentify at least one token,receiving selection of a code element and a condition related to the code pattern in response to the pre-configured prompts, anddefining the rule based on
the received selection of the code element and the condition, andthe at least one token and according to a token-to-rule mapping; identifying occurrence of the concept in the code listing based on the rule; generating, by a processor, information regarding the occurrence of the concept in the code listing as an indication of the quality of the code listing; and recommending a measure to transform the code listing to satisfy the concept to improve the quality of the code listing.