Computer-implemented tools and methods for extracting information about the structure of a large computer software system, exploring its structure, discovering problems in its design, and enabling refactoring

摘要

An interrelated set of tools and methods are disclosed for recording the identity of software components responsible for creating files, recording the identity of software components that access software files, reasoning about the dependency relationships between software components, identifying and reporting undesirable dependencies between them, and reporting other useful information about a large-scale software architecture by instrumenting a software build process or test process.