Exact definition of dependency?

[Jo Van Eyck]

Hello,

I'm currently writing my master's thesis on the use of code analysis
tools for architecture conformance checking. Lately I've been
experimenting with Architecture Rules and it seems to be a promising
library.

However, I have a question:
What is the exact definition of "depends" (as in a package "depends"
on another package) used in architecture rules? Or is this something I
should be asking over at JDepend?

Thanks in advance,

Jo Van Eyck

[Mike Nereson]

Hello Jo,

Honestly I think its been well over a year since anyone has worked on this, but I will do my best to answer your question.

If I recall Architecture Rules only looks what what a class imports to determine what it depends on. So the tool only looks at direct dependencies, not the indirect dependencies (transitive dependencies).

 

These are current limitations of the project. We had recognized that we needed to replace JDepend but never got around to doing it. 

Does that answer your question? Mykola might have additional insight to offer.

~ Mike Nereson