Examination committee: Prof. Barbara G. Ryder, Prof. Alexander T. Borgida, Prof. Ulrich Kremer and Prof. Casimir Kulikowski

Abstract:

This paper reports the definitions of atomic changes and their inter-dependences in Chianti, a change impact analysis tool for Java that is implemented in the context of the Eclipse environment. Chianti analyzes two versions of an application, decomposes their difference into a unique set of atomic changes, and a partial order inter-dependences of these changes is calculated. Change impact is then reported in terms of affected (regression or unit) tests whose execution behavior may have been modified by the applied changes. For each affected test, Chianti also determines a set of affecting changes that were responsible for the test's modified behavior. The atomic changes and dependences are used together with call graphs in finding affected tests and affecting changes. This paper gives a detailed description of atomic changes, their inter-dependences and how these information is used in Chianti to provide the programmers with tool support for programming understanding and debugging.