A tool for understanding object-oriented program dependencies

Abstract

We present a tool for understanding and re engineering C++ programs called OO!CARE (Object-Oriented Computer Aided Re Engineering). OO!CARE demonstrates some practical solutions to the problem of extracting and visualizing object oriented program dependencies (i.e. data objects and their relationships). It is an extension of an earlier tool for maintaining C programs called CARE (Computer Aided Re engineering). We also discuss some early experiences acquired from using the tool. For instance, an important observation made during a re engineering exercise is that some characteristics of the object-oriented programming paradigm such as inheritance and polymorphism contribute significantly to the complexity of understanding program dependencies. Moreover, we discuss how object-oriented program dependencies differ from the procedural ones and explain how they can be visualized within the same environment.<>