Inter-module renaming and reorganizing: examples of program manipulation in-the-large

Maintaining software often requires repetitive and error prone manipulations of source code, particularly when changes must be propagated across many modules. Practical program manipulation tools can alleviate these problems by automatically making changes throughout a program. Such tools can become even more valuable when they allow for manipulation in-the-large: the systematic modification of all the modules that comprise a software project. We demonstrate this concept with two prototype tools. An inter-module renamer locates and renames all and only appropriate instances of an identifier throughout a project, ensuring that no conflicts arise. An inter-module reorganizer automates the task of moving program entities between modules such that import/export declarations are properly updated for modules dependent on the moved entity and for items on which the moved entity is dependent. Our tools are designed for modern block-structured and object-oriented languages such as Modula-3.<
>