Aspect Mining Using Method Call Tree

Aspect mining tries to identify crosscutting concerns in legacy systems and thus supports the adaptation to an aspect-oriented design. This paper describes an automatic static aspect mining approach that relies on the method call tree. It uses method call tree to generate method call traces. These traces are then investigated for recurring method patterns based on different constraints, such as the requirement that the patterns exist in always the same composition and in different calling contexts in the method call trace. A experimental evaluation shows that the approach improves the recall of the aspect candidates and the efficiency of the aspect mining.