Source-to-Source Transformation in the Large

Abstract

In this paper we present Inject/J, both a language and a tool for specifying complex source-to-source transformations of Java programs. The focus of Inject/J is on ”transformation in the large” that is, modification of large object-oriented software on the design level. We first introduce the meta-model of our transformation language. This meta-model provides a conceptual view on object-oriented software by capturing relevant design entities. It also defines a number of conceptual analysis and transformation operations together with their code-level semantics. The entities of the meta-model, together with the respective operations, constitute the primitives of our transformation language. We discuss the main features of this transformation language and illustrate how it can be used to perform complex transformation tasks.