Refactoring of Heterogeneous Meta-Program into k-stage Meta-Program

Authors

  • V. Štuikys Kaunas University of Technology
  • K. Bespalova Kaunas University of Technology
  • R. Burbaitė Kaunas University of Technology

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.itc.43.1.3715

Keywords:

refactoring, meta-program, meta-parameter, meta-programming, multi-stage heterogeneous meta-program

Abstract

The paper presents: (1) a graph-based theoretical background to refactoring a correct heterogeneous meta-program into its k-stage representation; (2) the refactoring method; (3) refactoring experiments with tasks taken from different domains, including real world tasks, such as meta-programs to teach Computer Science (CS) topics using educational robots. Refactoring meta-programs by staging enables to flexibly adapt them to the different context of use. To do that (semi-)automatically, we use the contextual information as a priority relation (e.g. highest, lowest, etc.) introduced within the meta-program specification. We implement the refactoring method using the so-called activating/de-activating label (index) to change the role of meta-language constructs at different stages. The contribution of the paper is: (1) applying the known (in programming) staging concept to heterogeneous meta-programming; (2) a theoretical background, properties and the method to solve tasks of this kind of refactoring.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.itc.43.1.3715

Author Biographies

V. Štuikys, Kaunas University of Technology

Software Engineering, Prof.

K. Bespalova, Kaunas University of Technology

Software Eng. Department, PhD student

R. Burbaitė, Kaunas University of Technology

Software Eng. Department, PhD Student

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Published

2014-03-07

Issue

Section

Regular Papers