Program comprehension through dynamic analysis

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The objective of the proposed research is the exploration of new approaches to aid developers in comprehending the behaviour of a software system through the exploration of execution traces. Traces have historically been difficult to work with since they can be extremely large. Therefore, we need to investigate ways to allow software engineers to understand and analyse their content. In this proposal, we intend to investigate the following techniques:Firstly, we will study how various portions of a trace can be treated as the same pattern. The objective is to develop advanced trace simplification algorithms.Secondly, we will study how high-level behavioural design models can be automatically extracted from large traces. These models will record the essence of traces making it easier for an engineer to comprehend the information.Thirdly, we will develop an exchange format for representing traces in a standardised way. This work will be based on an existing format called the Trace Compact Format (CTF). We will investigate how to best extend the power of expression of CTF in order to support various types of traces generated from mutli-threaded systems.Finally, we will study how to best represent traces in a visualization environment. The resulting trace analysis tool will incorporate the outcome of the above-mentioned studies.