QBO: a query tool specially developed to explore programs

Author

Balmas, Françoise

Author_Institution

Dept. Inf., Univ. Paris 8, France

fYear

1999

fDate

6-8 Oct 1999

Firstpage

270

Lastpage

279

Abstract

We introduce QBO, or Query by Outlines, a tool specially developed to help explore programs. It relies on a previously implemented system able to automatically construct outlines (F. Balmas, 1997; 1998): every linear loop identified in a program is conceptualized according to the kind of computations it performs. QBO proposes an outline storage mechanism together with a query algorithm that enables outlines to be efficiently retrieved. QBO eases exploration of programs, thus program management, clone detection or plan recognition can be envisaged at lower cost; as outlines are already computed and indexed, only high level constructs have to be checked. Therefore, answering queries is a rather fast process. We sketch our outlining model, present our query tool and discuss how query by outlines may help explore programs

Keywords

program control structures; query processing; reverse engineering; software maintenance; software tools; QBO; Query by Outlines; clone detection; high level constructs; linear loop; outline storage mechanism; outlining model; plan recognition; program exploration; program management; query algorithm; query answering; query tool; Cloning; Costs; Ear; Identity-based encryption; Large-scale systems; Performance evaluation; Programmable logic arrays; Programming profession; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Reverse Engineering, 1999. Proceedings. Sixth Working Conference on

Conference_Location

Atlanta, GA

Print_ISBN

0-7695-0303-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WCRE.1999.806966

Filename

806966