Compiler Analysis of Imperative, Object-oriented Type Signatures for Program Development, Users Assistance, and Program Testing

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This project aims to analyze imperative, object-oriented programs for type signature information, which can help automate several programming tasks that are currently performed manually. Type signatures summarize the behavior of a program's methods, functions, or procedures; while such information has been used to advantage in the functional programming language community, little has been done to investigate how popular, object-oriented languages could benefit from use of type signatures. The research will improve the quality and efficiency of software navigation and reuse; software testing and demonstration; and construction of graphical and non-graphical user interfaces. Novel aspects include use of data flow analysis to refine and improve the precision of type signatures extracted from imperative languages and analysis of method call-sequences that accomplish or approximate a given type signature.