Introducing records by refactoring

Abstract

This paper focuses on introducing a new transformation to our existing model for refactoring Erlang programs. The goal of the transformation is to introduce a new abstraction level in data representation by substituting a group ofrelated data with a record. Using records enhances the legibility of the source code, makes further development easier, and makes programming less error-prone by providing better possibilities for both compilation time and runtime checks. There is a strong industrial demand for such a transformation in refactoring legacy code. Erlang is a dynamically typed language, and many of its semantical rules are also dynamic. Therefore the main challenge in this research is to ensure the safety of statically performed refactoring steps.