research-article

Analyzing the discipline of preprocessor annotations in 30 million lines of C code

Authors:

Christian Kästner,

Sven ApelAuthors Info & Claims

AOSD '11: Proceedings of the tenth international conference on Aspect-oriented software development

Pages 191 - 202

https://doi.org/10.1145/1960275.1960299

Published: 21 March 2011 Publication History

Abstract

The C preprocessor cpp is a widely used tool for implementing variable software. It enables programmers to express variable code (which may even crosscut the entire implementation) with conditional compilation. The C preprocessor relies on simple text processing and is independent of the host language (C, C++, Java, and so on). Language-independent text processing is powerful and expressive - programmers can make all kinds of annotations in the form of #ifdefs - but can render unpreprocessed code difficult to process automatically by tools, such as refactoring, concern management, and variability-aware type checking. We distinguish between disciplined annotations, which align with the underlying source-code structure, and undisciplined annotations, which do not align with the structure and hence complicate tool development. This distinction raises the question of how frequently programmers use undisciplined annotations and whether it is feasible to change them to disciplined annotations to simplify tool development and to enable programmers to use a wide variety of tools in the first place. By means of an analysis of 40 medium-sized to large-sized C programs, we show empirically that programmers use cpp mostly in a disciplined way: about 84% of all annotations respect the underlying source-code structure. Furthermore, we analyze the remaining undisciplined annotations, identify patterns, and discuss how to transform them into a disciplined form.

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Cited By

Rahman TShalabi ISharma T(2024)Exploring Influence of Feature Toggles on Code ComplexityProceedings of the 28th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering10.1145/3661167.3661190(363-368)Online publication date: 18-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3661167.3661190
Landsberg TDietrich CLohmann D(2024)Should I Bother? Fast Patch Filtering for Statically-Configured Software VariantsProceedings of the 28th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference10.1145/3646548.3672585(12-23)Online publication date: 2-Sep-2024
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Schulze SEngelke PKrüger J(2023)Evolutionary Feature Dependencies: Analyzing Feature Co-Changes in C Systems2023 IEEE 23rd International Working Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation (SCAM)10.1109/SCAM59687.2023.00019(84-95)Online publication date: 2-Oct-2023
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Index Terms

Analyzing the discipline of preprocessor annotations in 30 million lines of C code
1. General and reference
  1. Cross-computing tools and techniques
    1. Metrics
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Designing software
      1. Software implementation planning
        Software design techniques
    2. Software development process management
  2. Software notations and tools
    1. Compilers
      1. Preprocessors

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cover image ACM Conferences

AOSD '11: Proceedings of the tenth international conference on Aspect-oriented software development

March 2011

326 pages

ISBN:9781450306058

DOI:10.1145/1960275

General Chair:
Paulo Borba
Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil
,
Program Chair:
Shigeru Chiba
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

Copyright © 2011 ACM.

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Published: 21 March 2011

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AOSD'11: Tenth International Conference on Aspect-Oriented Software Development

March 21 - 25, 2011

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3661167.3661190
Landsberg TDietrich CLohmann D(2024)Should I Bother? Fast Patch Filtering for Statically-Configured Software VariantsProceedings of the 28th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference10.1145/3646548.3672585(12-23)Online publication date: 2-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3646548.3672585
Schulze SEngelke PKrüger J(2023)Evolutionary Feature Dependencies: Analyzing Feature Co-Changes in C Systems2023 IEEE 23rd International Working Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation (SCAM)10.1109/SCAM59687.2023.00019(84-95)Online publication date: 2-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/SCAM59687.2023.00019
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