Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Program specialization via program slicing

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Partial Evaluation

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1110))

Abstract

This paper concerns the use of program slicing to perform a certain kind of program-specialization operation. We show that the specialization operation that slicing performs is different from the specialization operations performed by algorithms for partial evaluation, supercompilation, bifurcation, and deforestation. To study the relationship between slicing and these operations in a simplified setting, we consider the problem of slicing functional programs. We identify two different goals for what we mean by “slicing a functional program” and give algorithms that correspond to each of them.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Ballance, R.A., Maccabe, A.B., and Ottenstein, K.J., “The program dependence web: A representation supporting control-, data-, and demand-driven interpretation of imperative languages,” Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 90 Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation, (White Plains, NY, June 20-22, 1990), ACM SIGPLAN Notices 25(6) pp. 257–271 (June 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bates, S. and Horwitz, S., “Incremental program testing using program dependence graphs,” pp. 384–396 in Conference Record of the Twentieth ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, (Charleston, SC, January 10–13, 1993), ACM, New York, NY (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Binkley, D., “Using semantic differencing to reduce the cost of regression testing,” Proceedings of the 1992 Conference on Software Maintenance (Orlando, FL, November 9–12, 1992), pp. 41–50 (1992).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Cartwright, R. and Felleisen, M., “The semantics of program dependence,” Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 89 Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation, (Portland, OR, June 21-23, 1989), ACM SIGPLAN Notices 24(7) pp. 13–27 (July 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Das, M., Reps, T., and Van Hentenryck, P., “Semantic foundations of binding-time analysis for imperative programs,” pp. 100–110 in Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Partial Evaluation and Semantics-Based Program Manipulation (PEPM 95), (La Jolla, California, June 21–23, 1995), ACM, New York, NY (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ferrante, J., Ottenstein, K., and Warren, J., “The program dependence graph and its use in optimization,” ACM Trans. Program. Lang. Syst. 9(3) pp. 319–349 (July 1987).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Field, J., “A simple rewriting semantics for realistic imperative programs and its application to program analysis,” Proceedings of the SIGPLAN Workshop on Partial Evaluation and Semantics-Based Program Manipulation, (San Francisco, CA, June 1992), Technical Report YALEU/DCS/RR-909, Department of Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT (1992).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Futamura, Y. and Nogi, K., “Generalized partial computation,” pp. 133–152 in Partial Evaluation and Mixed Computation: Proceedings of the IFIP TC2 Workshop on Partial Evaluation and Mixed Computation, (Gammel Avernaes, Denmark, October 18-24, 1987), ed. D. BjΦrner, A.P. Ershov, and N.D. Jones, North-Holland, New York, NY (1988).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Gallagher, K.B., “Using program slicing in software maintenance,” Ph.D. dissertation and Tech. Rep. CS-90-05, Computer Science Department, University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus, Baltimore, MD (January 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gallagher, K.B. and Lyle, J.R., “Using program slicing in software maintenance,” IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering SE-17(8) pp. 751–761 (August 1991).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Horwitz, S., Pfeiffer, P., and Reps, T., “Dependence analysis for pointer variables,” Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 89 Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation, (Portland, OR, June 21-23, 1989), ACM SIGPLAN Notices 24(7) pp. 28–40 (July 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Horwitz, S., Prins, J., and Reps, T., “Integrating non-interfering versions of programs,” ACM Trans. Program. Lang. Syst. 11(3) pp. 345–387 (July 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Horwitz, S., Reps, T., and Binkley, D., “Interprocedural slicing using dependence graphs,” ACM Trans. Program. Lang. Syst. 12(1) pp. 26–60 (January 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Horwitz, S., “Identifying the semantic and textual differences between two versions of a program,” Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 90 Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation, (White Plains, NY, June 20-22, 1990), ACM SIGPLAN Notices 25(6) pp. 234–245 (June 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Hughes, J., “Backwards analysis of functional programs,” pp. 187–208 in Partial Evaluation and Mixed Computation: Proceedings of the IFIP TC2 Workshop on Partial Evaluation and Mixed Computation, (Gammel Avernaes, Denmark, October 18-24, 1987), ed. D. BjΦrner, A.P. Ershov, and N.D. Jones, North-Holland, New York, NY (1988).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Jones, N.D. and Muchnick, S.S., “Flow analysis and optimization of Lisp-like structures,” pp. 102–131 in Program Flow Analysis: Theory and Applications, ed. S.S. Muchnick and N.D. Jones, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1981).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Jones, N.D., “Automatic program specialization: A reexamination from basic principles,” pp. 225–282 in Partial Evaluation and Mixed Computation: Proceedings of the IFIP TC2 Workshop on Partial Evaluation and Mixed Computation, (Gammel Avernaes, Denmark, October 18-24, 1987), ed. D. BjΦrner, A.P. Ershov, and N.D. Jones, North-Holland, New York, NY (1988).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Jones, N.D., Gomard, C.K., and Sestoft, P., Partial Evaluation and Automatic Program Generation, Prentice-Hall International, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  19. Kuck, D.J., Kuhn, R.H., Leasure, B., Padua, D.A., and Wolfe, M., “Dependence graphs and compiler optimizations,” pp. 207–218 in Conference Record of the Eighth ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, (Williamsburg, VA, January 26-28, 1981), ACM, New York, NY (1981).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Launchbury, J., Projection Factorizations in Partial Evaluation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Liu, Y.A. and Teitelbaum, T., “Caching intermediate results for program improvement,” in Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Partial Evaluation and Semantics-Based Program Manipulation (PEPM 95), (La Jolla, California, June 21-23, 1995), ACM, New York, NY (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Livadas, P.E. and Rosenstein, A., “Slicing in the presence of pointer variables,” Technical Report SERC-TR-74-F, Software Engineering Research Center, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (June 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Lyle, J. and Weiser, M., “Experiments on slicing-based debugging tools,” in Proceedings of the First Conference on Empirical Studies of Programming, (June 1986), Ablex Publishing Co. (1986).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Lyle, J.R., Wallace, D.R., Graham, J.R., Gallagher, K.B., Poole, J.P., and Binkley, D.W., “Unravel: A CASE tool to assist evaluation of high integrity software,” Report NISTIR 5691, National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (August 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Mogensen, T., “Partially static structures in a self-applicable partial evaluator,” pp. 325–347 in Partial Evaluation and Mixed Computation: Proceedings of the IFIP TC2 Workshop on Partial Evaluation and Mixed Computation, (Gammel Avernaes, Denmark, October 18-24, 1987), ed. D. BjΦrner, A.P. Ershov, and N.D. Jones, North-Holland, New York, NY (1988).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Mogensen, T., “Separating binding times in language specifications,” pp. 12–25 in Fourth International Conference on Functional Programming and Computer Architecture, (London, UK, Sept. 11-13, 1989), ACM Press, New York, NY (1989).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Ning, J.Q., Engberts, A., and Kozaczynski, W., “Automated support for legacy code understanding,” Commun. of the ACM 37(5) pp. 50–57 (May 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Ottenstein, K.J. and Ottenstein, L.M., “The program dependence graph in a software development environment,” Proceedings of the ACM SIGSOFT/SIGPLAN Software Engineering Symposium on Practical Software Development Environments, (Pittsburgh, PA, Apr. 23-25, 1984), ACM SIGPLAN Notices 19(5) pp. 177–184 (May 1984).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Pfeiffer, P. and Selke, R.P, “On the adequacy of dependence-based representations for programs with heaps,” in Proceedings of the International Conference on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Software (TACS '91), (Sendai, Japan, September 1991), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 526, ed. T. Ito and A.R. Meyer, Springer-Verlag, New York, NY (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Ramalingam, G. and Reps, T., “Semantics of program representation graphs,” TR-900, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (December 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  31. Reps, T. and Yang, W., “The semantics of program slicing and program integration,” pp. 360–374 in Proceedings of the Colloquium on Current Issues in Programming Languages, (Barcelona, Spain, March 13-17, 1989), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 352, Springer-Verlag, New York, NY (1989).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Reps, T., “Shape analysis as a generalized path problem,” pp. 1–11 in Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Partial Evaluation and Semantics-Based Program Manipulation (PEPM 95), (La Jolla, California, June 21-23, 1995), ACM, New York, NY (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Reynolds, J.C., “Automatic computation of data set definitions,” pp. 456–461 in Information Processing 68: Proceedings of the IFIP Congress 68, North-Holland, New York, NY (1968).

    Google Scholar 

  34. Romanenko, S., “Arity raiser and its use in program specialization,” pp. 341–360 in Proceedings of the Third European Symposium on Programming, (Copenhagen, Denmark, May 15-18, 1990), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 432, ed. N. Jones, Springer-Verlag, New York, NY (1990).

    Google Scholar 

  35. Selke, R.P, “A rewriting semantics for program dependence graphs,” pp. 12–24 in Conference Record of the Sixteenth ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, (Austin, TX, Jan. 11-13, 1989), ACM, New York, NY (1989).

    Google Scholar 

  36. Sestoft, P., “Automatic call unfolding in a partial evaluator,” pp. 485–506 in Partial Evaluation and Mixed Computation: Proceedings of the IFIP TC2 Workshop on Partial Evaluation and Mixed Computation, (Gammel Avernaes, Denmark, October 18-24, 1987), ed. D. BjΦrner, A.P. Ershov, and N.D. Jones, North-Holland, New York, NY (1988).

    Google Scholar 

  37. Tip, F., “A survey of program slicing techniques,” Journal of Programming Languages 3 pp. 121–181(1995).

    Google Scholar 

  38. Turchin, V.F., “The concept of a supercompiler,” ACM Trans. Program. Lang. Syst. 8(3) pp. 292–325 (July 1986).

    Google Scholar 

  39. Wadler, P. and Hughes, R.J.M., “Projections for strictness analysis,” pp. 385–407 in Third Conference on Functional Programming and Computer Architecture, (Portland, OR, Sept. 14-16, 1987), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 274, ed. G. Kahn, Springer-Verlag, New York, NY (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  40. Wadler, P., “Deforestation: Transforming programs to eliminate trees,” Theoretical Computer Science 73 pp. 231–248 (1990).

    Google Scholar 

  41. Weise, D., Crew, R.F., Ernst, M., and Steensgaard, B., “Value dependence graphs: Representation without taxation,” pp. 297–310 in Conference Record of the Twenty-First ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, (Portland, OR, Jan. 16-19, 1994), ACM, New York, NY (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  42. Weiser, M., “Reconstructing sequential behavior from parallel behavior projections,” Information Processing Letters 17 pp. 129–135 (October 1983).

    Google Scholar 

  43. Weiser, M., “Program slicing,” IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering SE-10(4) pp. 352–357 (July 1984).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1210 West Dayton Street, 53706, Madison, WI, USA

    Thomas Reps & Todd Turnidge

Authors
  1. Thomas Reps
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Todd Turnidge
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Olivier Danvy Robert Glück Peter Thiemann

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Reps, T., Turnidge, T. (1996). Program specialization via program slicing. In: Danvy, O., Glück, R., Thiemann, P. (eds) Partial Evaluation. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1110. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-61580-6_20

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-61580-6_20

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-61580-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-70589-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation