A slicing-based approach for locating type errors

The effectiveness of a type checking tool strongly depends on the accuracy of the positional information that is associated with type errors. We present an approach where the location associated with an error message e is defined as a slice P_e of the program P being type checked. We show that this approach yields highly accurate positional information: P_e is a program that contains precisely those program constructs in P that caused error e. Semantically, we have the interesting property that type checking P_e is guaranteed to produce the same error e. Our approach is completely language-independent, and has been implemented for a significant subset of Pascal

A slicing-based approach for locating type errors

The effectiveness of a type checking tool strongly depends on the accuracy of the positional information that is associated with type errors. We present an approach where the location associated with an error message e is defined as a slice P_e of the program P being type checked. We show that this approach yields highly accurate positional information: P_e is a program that contains precisely those program constructs in P that caused error e. Semantically, we have the interesting property that type checking P_e is guaranteed to produce the same error e. Our approach is completely language-independent, and has been implemented for a significant subset of Pascal

Using conditional trace slicing for improving Maude programs

[EN] Understanding the behavior of software is important for the existing software to be improved. In this paper, we present a trace slicing technique that is suitable for analyzing complex, textually-large computations in rewriting logic, which is a general framework efficiently implemented in the Maude language that seamlessly unifies a wide variety of logics and models of concurrency. Given a Maude execution trace T and a slicing criterion for the trace (i.e., a piece of information that we want to observe in the final computation state), we traverse T from back to front and the backward dependence of the observed information is incrementally computed at each execution step. At the end of the traversal, a simplified trace slice is obtained by filtering out all the irrelevant data that do not impact on the data of interest. By narrowing the size of the trace, the slicing technique favors better inspection and debugging activities since most tedious and irrelevant inspections that are routinely performed during diagnosis and bug localization can be eliminated automatically. Moreover, cutting down the execution trace can expose opportunities for further improvement, which we illustrate by means of several examples that we execute by using iJulienne, a trace slicer that implements our conditional slicing technique and is endowed with a trace querying mechanism that increases flexibility and reduction power.This work has been partially supported by the EU (FEDER) and the Spanish MEC project ref. TIN2010-21062-C02-02, and by Generalitat Valenciana ref. PROMETEO2011/052. This work was carried out during the tenure of D. Ballis' ERCIM "Alain Bensoussan" Postdoctoral Fellowship. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement No. 246016. F. Frechina was supported by FPU-ME grant AP2010-5681 and D. Romero by FPI-MEC grant BES-2008-004860.Alpuente Frasnedo, M.; Ballis, D.; Frechina, F.; Romero, DO. (2014). Using conditional trace slicing for improving Maude programs. Science of Computer Programming. 80:385-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2013.09.018S3854158

Loop squashing transformations for amorphous slicing

Program slicing is a source code extraction technique that can be used to support reverse engineering by automatically extracting executable subprograms that preserve some aspect of the original program's semantics. Although minimal slices are not generally computable, safe approximate algorithms can be used to good effect. However, the precision of such slicing algorithms is a major factor in determining the value of slicing for reverse engineering. Amorphous slicing has been proposed as a way of reducing the size of a slice. Amorphous slices preserve the aspect of semantic interest, but not the syntax that denotes it, making them generally smaller than their syntactically restricted counterparts. Amorphous slicing is suitable for many reverse engineering applications, since reverse engineering typically abandons the existing syntax to facilitate structural improvements. Previous work on amorphous slicing has not attempted to exploit its potential to apply loop-squashing transformations. This paper presents an algorithm for amorphous slicing of loops, which identifies induction variables, transformation rule templates and iteration-determining compile-time expressions. The algorithm uses these to squash certain loops into conditional assignments. The paper also presents an inductive proof of the rule templates and illustrates the application of the algorithm with a detailed example of loop squashing

Backward Trace Slicing for Rewriting Logic Theories -Technical report -

Trace slicing is a widely used technique for execution trace analysis that is effectively used in program debugging, analysis and comprehension. In this paper, we present a backward trace slicing technique that can be used for the analysis of Rewriting Logic theories. Our trace slicing technique allows us to systematically trace back rewrite sequences modulo equational axioms (such as associativity and commutativity) by means of an algorithm that dynamically simplifies the traces by detecting control and data dependencies, and dropping useless data that do not influence the final result. Our methodology is particularly suitable for analyzing complex, textually-large system computations such as those delivered as counter-example traces by Maude model-checkers.Alpuente Frasnedo, M.; Ballis, D.; Espert, J.; Romero, D. (2011). Backward Trace Slicing for Rewriting Logic Theories -Technical report -. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/1077

A Sparse Program Dependence Graph For Object Oriented Programming Languages

The Program Dependence Graph (PDG) has achieved widespread acceptance as a useful tool for software engineering, program analysis, and automated compiler optimizations. This thesis presents the Sparse Object Oriented Program Dependence Graph (SOOPDG), a formalism that contains elements of traditional PDG\u27s adapted to compactly represent programs written in object-oriented languages such as Java. This formalism is called sparse because, in contrast to other OO and Java-specific adaptations of PDG\u27s, it introduces few node types and no new edge types beyond those used in traditional dependence-based representations. This results in correct program representations using smaller graph structures and simpler semantics when compared to other OO formalisms. We introduce the Single Flow to Use (SFU) property which requires that exactly one definition of each variable be available for each use. We demonstrate that the SOOPDG, with its support for the SFU property coupled with a higher order rewriting semantics, is sufficient to represent static Java-like programs and dynamic program behavior. We present algorithms for creating SOOPDG representations from program text, and describe graph rewriting semantics. We also present algorithms for common static analysis techniques such as program slicing, inheritance analysis, and call chain analysis. We contrast the SOOPDG with two previously published OO graph structures, the Java System Dependence Graph and the Java Software Dependence Graph. The SOOPDG results in comparatively smaller static representations of programs, cleaner graph semantics, and potentially more accurate program analysis. Finally, we introduce the Simulation Dependence Graph (SDG). The SDG is a related representation that is developed specifically to represent simulation systems, but is extensible to more general component-based software design paradigms. The SDG allows formal reasoning about issues such as component composition, a property critical to the creation and analysis of complex simulation systems and component-based design systems

Verificación de aplicaciones web dinámicas con Web-TLR

Web-TLR is a software tool designed for model-checking Web applications that is based on rewriting logic. Web applications are expressed as rewrite theories that can be formally verified by using the Maude built-in LTLR model-checker. Whenever a property is refuted, it produces a counterexample trace that underlies the failing model checking computation. However, the analysis (or even the simple inspection) of large counterexamples may prove to be unfeasible due to the size and complexity of the traces under examination. This work aims to improve the understandability of the counterexamples generated by Web-TLR by developing an integrated framework for debugging Web applications that integrates a trace-slicing technique for rewriting logic theories that is particularly tailored to Web-TLR. The verification environment is also provided with a user-friendly, graphical Web interface that shields the user from unnecessary information. Trace slicing is a widely used technique for execution trace analysis that is effectively used in program debugging, analysis and comprehension. Our trace slicing technique allows us to systematically trace back rewrite sequences modulo equational axioms (such as associativity and commutativity) by means of an algorithm that dynamically simpli es the traces by detecting control and data dependencies, and dropping useless data that do not infuence the final result. Our methodology is particularly suitable for analyzing complex, textually-large system computations such as those delivered as counter-example traces by Maude model-checkers. The slicing facility implemented in Web-TLR allows the user to select the pieces of information that she is interested into by means of a suitable pattern-matching language supported by wildcards. The selected information is then traced back through inverse rewrite sequences. The slicing process drastically simpli es the computation trace by dropping useless data that do not influence the nal result. By using this facility, the Web engineer can focus on the relevant fragments of the failing application, which greatly reduces the manual debugging e ort and also decreases the number of iterative verfications.Espert Real, J. (2011). Verificación de aplicaciones web dinámicas con Web-TLR. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/11219.Archivo delegad