A Pattern Language for Reverse Engineering

Since object-oriented programming is usually associated with iterative development, reverse engineering must be considered an essential facet of the object-oriented paradigm. The reverse engineering pattern language presented here summarises the reverse engineering experience gathered as part of the FAMOOS project, a project with the explicit goal of investigating reverse and reengineering techniques in an object-oriented context. Due to limitations on EuroPLOP submissions, only part of the full pattern language is presented, namely the patterns describing how to gain an initial understanding of a software system.