Detecting Cross-language Dependencies Generically

In order to evaluate large, heterogeneous information systems (i.e., comprising modules developed in diverse programming languages) a method to detect dependencies among these modules is needed. Although there is a variety of methods that can detect dependencies within a single programming language, the available cross-language detection methods use extensive language specific information to parse and analyse modules written in different languages. In this paper, a new method for detecting cross-language dependencies is proposed. This method is generic, yet accurate and can support new languages with minimal effort. To evaluate the method, a tool was created and a series of experiments was conducted on a small case study for which dependencies had been extracted manually. The evaluation shows that the method is effective, extensible and easily explainable.