Refactoring for Software Transactional Memory

Software transactional memory (STM) is an optimistic concurrent lock free mechanism that has the potential of positively transforming how concurrent programming is performed. STM, despite its many desirable attributes, is not yet a ubiquitous programming language feature in the commercial software domain. There are many implementation challenges with retrofitting STM into pre-existing language frameworks. Furthermore, existing software systems will also need to be refactored in order to take advantage of STM’s unique benefits. As with other time consuming and error prone refactoring processes, refactoring for STM is best done with automated tool support; it is the aim of this paper to propose such a tool.