Towards language-parametric refactorings

Abstract

A software refactoring is a program transformation that improves the structure of the code, while preserving its behavior. Most modern IDEs offer a number of automated refactorings as editor services. However, correctly implementing refactorings is notoriously complex, and these state-of-the-art implementations are known to be faulty and too restrictive. Spoofax is a language workbench that allows language engineers to define languages through declarative specifications. When developing a new programming language, it is both difficult and time-consuming to implement automated refactoring transformations. The goal of this work is to implement sound language-parametric refactorings, which rely on an abstract program model built from the declarative specification of a language's static semantics.