Felipe Gaucho's Blog

January 2007 Archives

Code fitness: how fat is your code? how tall?

I recently attended a JUGS meeting where Prof. Nierstrasz introduced some details about his new book, titled Object-Oriented Reengineering Patterns. Very interesting lecture based on a project that aims to research and to produce tools for supporting the refactory of legacy code. Professor started asking the attendants what you mean by legacy code? and also presented some basic concepts about patterns and software reengineering. Then he introduced MOOSE - an environment for reengineering that comes with a tool that produces several views about the complexity of classes in OO projects. One of these views was very impressive for me, the one that show a class diagram based on code metrics like number of attributes, number of methods and line codes as code width, code height and code color - I immediately started to associate that with human caracteristics. Ok, the professor didn't suggested nothing about biometrics applyied to software, even because it shouldn't make sense to apply such concept to an inanimate stuff, but it was a funny mind game for me, to think about the code fitness. The two images below gives you a glimpsy about that:

Figure 1 - A Class Diagram.

A Class Diagram gives you a nice view about the hierarchical relationship between the classes, but does not represent too much about the quality of the code on each class. If one is required to choose a class on the above diagram for starting a code refactor, which class should be? Now, check the same class diagram presented through a MOOSE view:

Figure 1 - A Class Diagram with physical attributes.

At first sight, it is not so easy to understand what class is better or worst, but in a few seconds you start to figure out that more complex classes produced darker and bigger boxes. On the figure, the dark boxes represent classes with more lines of code and the tall boxes represent classes with more methods. And, of course, you can imagine several possibilities of representation with different shapes, colors or even including figures to represent different software quality deviations.

The physical attributes of the classes give us a very nice feeling about the bug champions candidates :) Imagine what is the shape of your current project. What is the shape of the classes? Lean classes? Imagine the silhouette of that weird code you noticed last year, and what about all that minor problems your team didn't had time to fix on the past?

I know there is several other tools and projects out there, but for me it was the first time I thinked about code with physical attributes. So, I decided to share this experience and suggest you to visit the project of the Bern University and try the MOOSE tool.

* MOOSE is written in Smalltalk, but it has also an Eclipse plugin that allow us to export java and jsp source code to a format understood by the Moose. More: there is a company that produced a compiler of Smalltalk code to Java, but I don't know if it is still available.

Special offer to Java Champions and JUG leaders on Jazoon'07

In recognition of the great job done by Java Champions and JUG leaders around the world, the Jazoon committee decided to offer a special condition for them: free tickets for Jazoon'07. And even better, each of them can invite a Java member of their community to come for free also. The idea is that the Champions and JUG leaders identify remarkable members of their community and take these guys to the event - promoting the sinergy between the remarkable community members. Imagine the happiness of a guy being chosen by his community for attend an international conference for free? This guy can be you, just ask your JUG leaders about it.

All details about the Conference fees and conditions can be found here or through this address: registration@jazoon.com

Important notes:
• It is 2 free tickets per JUG. It means if your JUG has more than 1 JUG leader, you must select one of them to receive the free tickets.
• Participating JUGs are asked to do some endorsement of the event, like the logo of the event on the JUG page and/or some advertisement about the event during the JUG meetings.
• The choice of the second free ticket beneficiary is solely up to the responsibility of the JUG leaders and Java Champions.

JUGs support for Jazoon'07 JUG members and leaders will receive a special support during the event - including the visibility of every community through exibhition of logos and jug leaders BOF. The special good news for your JUG members is that every JUG member pay half-price during the Early Bird registration until March 31st, 2007. Considering the registration is including food & beverages, we expect a large number of Java Champions and JUG members circulating within the event lounge. It will be a special ocasion to get in touch with other cultures and communities, discussing how they promote Java in different parts of the world. The events to promote the communication between the JUGs members include a BIG OPEN PARTY for celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Switzerland Java Users Group - JUG'S - The party will be open for all Java community including free beverage.

Prices and official registration page

There is a lot of more information on the Jazoon official web site, just go there and check the best condition for you and your company. If you have questions, just ask the Jazoon'07 customer support team.

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