Identifying Code Clones with RefactorErl

Abstract

Code clones, the results of "copy&paste programming", have a negativeimpact on software maintenance. Therefore several tools and techniqueshave been developed to identify them in the source code. Most ofthem concentrate on imperative, well known languages, while in thispaper, we give an AST/metric based clone detection algorithm forthe functional programming language Erlang. We propose a standalonesolution that does not overload users with results that are insignificantfrom the point of view of the user. We emphasise that the maintenancecosts can be decreased by using our solution, because the programmersneed to deal only with important issues.