Identifying deprecated external routines invoked by a software application implementing subtype polymorphism

A machine readable medium storing one or more sequences of instructions for causing a system to identify deprecated routines invoked by a software application implementing subtype polymorphism, wherein execution of said one or more sequences of instructions by said one or more processors contained in said system causes said system to perform the actions of:

• receiving software instructions constituting said software application;
• identifying, in said software application, a set of polymorphic data types, a plurality of variables of said set of polymorphic data types and a corresponding set of assignments for each of said plurality of variables;
• finding, in said software application, a first set of instructions, with each of said first set of instructions containing an invocation of a routine associated with one of said plurality of variables;
• determining, based on said corresponding set of assignments, a first plurality of routines that would be caused to be invoked for the invocation specified in said first set of instructions;
• ascertaining a first set of the routines of said first plurality of routines which are deprecated;
• and
• generating a report indicating the instructions causing invocation of said first set of routines,
• wherein said identifying and said finding are performed by examination of said software instructions, without having to execute said software instructions.

A digital processing system comprising:

• a processor;
• a random access memory (RAM);
• a machine readable medium to store a first plurality of instructions and a second plurality of instructions, wherein said first plurality of instructions constitutes a software application implementing subtype polymorphism, wherein said second plurality of instructions when retrieved into said RAM and executed by said processor forms an analysis tool designed to identify deprecated routines invoked by said software application, said analysis tool performing the actions of:
• identifying, in said software application, a set of polymorphic data types, a plurality of variables of said set of polymorphic data types and a corresponding set of assignments for each of said plurality of variables;
• finding, in said software application, a first set of instructions, with each of said first set of instructions containing an invocation of a routine associated with one of said plurality of variables;
• determining, based on said corresponding set of assignments, a first plurality of routines that would be caused to be invoked for the invocation specified in said first set of instructions;
• ascertaining a first set of the routines of said first plurality of routines which are deprecated;
• and
• generating a report indicating the instructions causing invocation of said first set of routines,
• wherein said identifying and said finding are performed by examination of said software instructions, without having to execute said software instructions.