Source Transformation of C++ Codes for Compatibility with Operator Overloading
Alexander Hück, Jean Utke, Christian H Bischof · Procedia Computer Science · 2016
In C++, new features and semantics can be added to an existing software package without sweeping code changes by introducing a user-defined type using operator overloading. This approach is used, for example, to add capabilities such as algorithmic differentiation. However, the introduction of operator overloading can cause a multitude of compilation errors. In a previous paper, we identified code constructs that cause a violation of the C++ language standard after a type change, and a tool called OO-Lint based on the Clang compiler that identifies these code constructs with lint-like messages. In this paper, we present an extension of this work that automatically transforms such problematic code constructs in order to make an existing code base compatible with a semantic augmentation through operator overloading. We applied our tool to the CFD software OpenFOAM and detected and transformed 23 instances of problematic code constructs in 160,000 lines of code. A significant amount of these root causes are included up to 425 times in other files causing a tremendous compiler error amplification. In addition, we show the significance of our work with a case study of the evolution of the ice flow modeling software ISSM, comparing a recent version which was manually type changed with a legacy version. The recent version shows no signs of problematic code constructs. In contrast, our tool detected and transformed a remarkable amount of issues in the legacy version that previously had to be manually located and fixed.