Correct refactoring of concurrent software
US8689191B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 5, 2010 |
| Grant date | Apr 1, 2014 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 30, 2033 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F8/456
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Automated refactorings as implemented in modern IDEs for Java usually make no special provisions for concurrent code. Thus, refactored programs may exhibit unexpected new concurrent behaviors. We analyze the types of such behavioral changes caused by current refactoring engines and develop techniques to make them behavior-preserving, ranging from simple techniques to deal with concurrency-related language constructs to a framework that computes and tracks synchronization dependencies. By basing our development directly on the Java Memory Model we can state and prove precise correctness results about refactoring concurrent programs. We show that a broad range of refactorings are not influenced by concurrency at all, whereas other important refactorings can be made behavior-preserving for correctly synchronized programs by using our framework. Experience with a prototype implementation shows that our techniques are easy to implement and require only minimal changes to existing refactoring engines.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.