DECOR: A Method for the Specification and Detection of Code and Design Smells

Code and design smells are poor solutions to recurring implementation and design problems. They may hinder the evolution of a system by making it hard for software engineers to carry out changes. We propose three contributions to the research field related to code and design smells: (1) DECOR, a method that embodies and defines all the steps necessary for the specification and detection of code and design smells, (2) DETEX, a detection technique that instantiates this method, and (3) an empirical validation in terms of precision and recall of DETEX. The originality of DETEX stems from the ability for software engineers to specify smells at a high level of abstraction using a consistent vocabulary and…

• IN
  Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique (INRIA)
• FQ
  Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies
• UD
  Université de Montréal
• NS
  Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada