Combining dynamic and static slicing for analysing assembler

One of the most challenging tasks a programmer can face is attempting to analyse and understand a legacy assembler system. Many features of assembler make analysis difficult, and these are the same features which make migration from assembler to a high-level language difficult. In this paper we describe some of the methods used in the FermaT transformation system for analysing and migrating assembler systems. One technique we discuss in detail is to combine a simple dynamic slice, computed with virtually no overhead, and a static slice implemented using program transformation technology, to generate very concise high-level descriptions of the sliced code.