Identifying Polymorphism Change and Impact in Object-orientated Software Maintenance
Jerry Zeyu Gao, CHRIS CHEN, Yasufumi Toyoshima, David Chenho Kung, Pei Hsia · Journal of Software Maintenance Research and Practice · 1996
Since polymorphism in object-orientated (OO) programming is an important feature and tool to increase the reusability and extensibility of object-orientated programs, understanding and identifying polymorphism changes and their impacts in an object-orientated program is very important in software maintenance. Although many published research articles have addressed the polymorphism feature in object-orientated programs, almost none of them have discussed software maintenance issues on identification of polymorphism change and impact. This paper proposes a formal software maintenance model for polymorphism in object-orientated programs, and discusses a systematic approach to track different polymorphism changes and their ripple effects. In addition, it reports on the implementation of a relevant tool, OOTME, and its use on two case studies.