Node coarsening calculi for program slicing

Several approaches to reverse and re-engineering are based upon program slicing. Unfortunately, for large systems, such as those which typically form the subject of reverse engineering activities, the space and time requirements of slicing can be a barrier to successful application. Faced with this...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inProceedings Eighth Working Conference on Reverse Engineering pp. 25 - 34
Main Authors Harman, M., Hierons, R., Danicic, S., Howroyd, J., Laurence, M., Fox, C.
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 2001
Subjects
Calculus
Educational institutions
Flow graphs
Merging
Reverse engineering
Safety
Software maintenance
Software testing
Online AccessGet full text
ISBN0769513034
9780769513034
ISSN1095-1350
DOI10.1109/WCRE.2001.957807

Cover

More Information
Summary:Several approaches to reverse and re-engineering are based upon program slicing. Unfortunately, for large systems, such as those which typically form the subject of reverse engineering activities, the space and time requirements of slicing can be a barrier to successful application. Faced with this problem, several authors have found it helpful to merge control flow graph (CFG) nodes, thereby improving the space and time requirements of standard slicing algorithms. The node-merging process essentially creates a 'coarser' version of the original CFG. The paper introduces a theory for defining control flow graph node coarsening calculi. The theory formalizes properties of interest, when coarsening is used as a precursor to program slicing. The theory is illustrated with a case study of a coarsening calculus, which is proved to have the desired properties of sharpness and consistency.
ISBN:0769513034
9780769513034
ISSN:1095-1350
DOI:10.1109/WCRE.2001.957807