Pragmatic source code reuse via execution record and replay

摘要

A key problem during copy–paste source code reuse is that, to reuse even a small section of code from arnprogram as opposed to an API, a programmer must include a huge amount of additional source code fromrnelsewhere in the same program. This additional code is notoriously large and complex, and portions can onlyrnbe identified at runtime. In this paper, we propose execution record/replay as a solution to this problem. Werndescribe a novel reuse technique that allows programmers to reuse functions from a C or C++ program, byrnrecording the execution of the program and selectively modifying how its functions are replayed. We havernimplemented our technique and evaluated it in an empirical study in which eight programmers used our toolrnto complete four tasks over four hours each. The participants found our technique to be easier than manuallyrnreusing the code as part of their project. We also found that the resulting code was smaller and less complexrnthan it would have been had the participants manually reused the code. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley &rnSons, Ltd.