Technology Summary Clone Miner & Clone Analyzer A Technology for Detection and Analysis of Design-Level Software Similarities The Problem Addressed

Similarities are inherent in software and lead to repetitions, so-called code clones. We find clones within and across software systems. Removing clones from programs is often neither possible nor even desirable: Some clones play a useful role in a program (e.g., for performance or reliability reasons); Other clones occur because of the limitations of a programming language; Removal of some clones might conflict with design or business goals that cannot be compromised; Clones often result from beneficial standardization of software design, due to application of company standards, or standardized architectures and pattern-driven development on modern component platforms e.g., (.NET ™ and JEE™); Uniformity of design is desirable despite inducing high levels of cloning. Companies often manage families of similar software systems, formed by multiple variants (releases) of a system deployed to different customers during software evolution, or software Product Lines developed with reuse strategies. Such systems display high levels of cloning. In current programming paradigms, whether we are in a single- or multiple-system development/maintenance situation, we are bound to deal with programs containing significant cloning. While cloning cannot be classified as inherently good or bad, the knowledge of clones, especially in large software, is useful for program understanding, maintenance, reuse and quality assessment