Using object-oriented algebraic nets for the reverse engineering of Java programs: a case study

The problem addressed in this paper is the following: how to use high-level Petri nets for the reverse engineering of implemented distributed applications. The paper presents a reverse engineering methodology applied on a real (simple) Java applet based client/server application. First, starting from the Java program, several abstraction steps are described using the CO-OPN/2 formal specification language. Then, the paper presents brand new research that studies property preservations during the refinement process.