Automated module interface upgrade

Abstract

During the lifetime of a software product the interface of some used library modules might change in such a way that the new interface is no longer compatible with the old one. This paper proposes a generic interface migration schema to automatically transform the software in the case of such an incompatible change. The solution is based on refactoring techniques and data flow analysis, and makes use of a formal description of the differences between the old and the new interfaces. The approach is illustrated with a real-life example.