Interactive Transformation of Java Programs

Implementing large and sweeping changes to software source code can be tedious and error-prone. A conceptually simple change can require a significant code editing effort. Any source code modification can be viewed as a transformation of one program into another. Integrating scriptable sourceto-source program transformations into development environments can assist developers with many repetitive code editing tasks. We created a new language for describing source-to-source transformations that combines textual and graphical elements. We built an interactive transformation tool for Java that implements a novel user-interaction model for creating and executing transformations in this language. Our design was based on user studies, and has been evaluated using usability metrics. We evaluated the tool with professional Java developers and found that they were able to learn the transformation language quickly and to use the interaction model effectively to complete a transformation task.