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19th IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE'04)   pp. 2-13
A Differencing Algorithm for Object-Oriented Programs
Taweesup Apiwattanapong, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
Alessandro Orso, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
Mary Jean Harrold, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

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DOI Bookmark: http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/ASE.2004.10015
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Abstract
During software evolution, information about changes between different versions of a program is useful for a number of software engineering tasks. For many of these tasks, a purely syntactic differencing may not provide enough information for the task to be performed effectively. This problem is especially relevant in the case of object-oriented software, for which a syntactic change can have subtle and unforeseen effects. In this paper, we present a technique for comparing object-oriented programs that identifies both differences and correspondences between two versions of a program. The technique is based on a representation that handles object-oriented features and, thus, can capture the behavior of object-oriented programs. We also present JDIFF, a tool that implements the technique for Java programs, and empirical results that show the efficiency and effectiveness of the technique on a real program.
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Citation:  Taweesup Apiwattanapong, Alessandro Orso, Mary Jean Harrold, "A Differencing Algorithm for Object-Oriented Programs," ase, pp. 2-13,  19th IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE'04),  2004