Computer science and information technologies: Automation of information processing

The first volume in the new series " Automation of Information Processing""contains recent results of young researchers, most of them doctoral students at the University of Latvia. Though the topics of the papers are quite different, they are all centered around the problem of providing theory, methodology, development tools and supporting environment for the development of information systems. All the papers in the volume are related to the most up-to-date issues in the respective area

Generating Dynamic Program Analysis Tools

Sophisticated instrumentation-based systems exist for building dynamic analysis tools but to use these systems a developer must write the instrumentation and analysis code by hand. This paper describes how analysis tools can be generated automatically by specifying analysis algorithms using attribute grammars based on the static and dynamic structure of the program being analysed. Using methods similar to those used to generate compilers, this approach enables implicit storage allocation for analysis data, automatic sequencing of analysis steps and transparently supports a variety of data sources and independence from the underlying implementation technology. Furthermore, analysis algorithms can be described in a modular way, enabling reuse. To demonstrate the approach the paper describes the Wyong system that generates dynamic analysis tools from specifications. An example analysis module specification is described and its reuse is illustrated. Wyong is based on the Eli compiler gener..