XIRC: a kernel for cross-artifact information engineering in software development environments

Abstract

We describe XIRC, a tool and architecture that enables to define queries over a uniform representation of all artifacts of a software project. These queries can be used for general cross-artifact information retrieval or for more special applications like checking implementation restrictions or conformance to style guides. XIRC is also a good basis to implement a broad range of tools for refactoring, generators, aspect-oriented programming and many other domains on top of it.