A System for Assisting Program Transformation

Abstract

ProgramProgram transformation has been advocated as a potentially appropriate methodology for program development. The ability to transform large programs is crucial to the practicality of such an approach.This paper describes research directed toward applying one particular transformation method to problems of increasing scale. The method adopted is that developed by Burstall and Darlington, and familiarity with their work is assumed.The problems which arise when attempting transformation of larger scale programs are discussed, and an approach to overcoming them is presented. Parts of the approach have been embodied in a machine-based system which assists a user in transforming his programs. The approach, and the use of this system, are illustrated by presenting portions of the transformation of a compiler for a "toy" language.

Program Structure and Design

“…A call by reference uses a value, and makes a value; it has data flow both into and out of the calling parameters. The plan structure for a routine is built by tracing back from its outputs, then the routine is unfolded (Burstall & Darlington, 1977;Feather, 1982) and its plan structure is connected to the caller's structure. Recursive routines are unfolded once.…”

Task Partitioning for Multi-core Network Processors

“…Transformation-based approaches to program development have been around for a long time [3,5] and applied to a variety of problems including circuit design [17] and hardware/software co-design [2]. The contribution of our research is to show that program-transformation is an appealing technique for bridging the gap between a high-level packet processing program and its low-level realisation on a multi-core network processor.…”

Recombining changes to software specifications

“…Most of the work on the area of meaning-changing transformations has been concerned with classifying the types of semantic modi®-cations that are used in practice [12,11,15]. We investigate the relationships between dierent versions of the speci®cations and propose an abstract model of the design history to provide a more formal model for understanding the details of this subject.…”