research-article

A Formal Model of Program Dependences and its Implications for Software Testing, Debugging, and Maintenance

Authors:

L. A. ClarkeAuthors Info & Claims

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Volume 16, Issue 9

Pages 965 - 979

https://doi.org/10.1109/32.58784

Published: 01 September 1990 Publication History

Abstract

A formal, general model of program dependences is presented and used to evaluate several dependence-based software testing, debugging, and maintenance techniques. Two generalizations of control and data flow dependence, called weak and strong syntactic dependence, are introduced and related to a concept called semantic dependence. Semantic dependence models the ability of a program statement to affect the execution behavior of other statements. It is shown that weak syntactic dependence is a necessary but not sufficient condition for semantic dependence and that strong syntactic dependence is necessary but not sufficient condition for a restricted form of semantic dependence that is finitely demonstrated. These results are used to support some proposed uses of program dependences, to controvert others, and to suggest new uses.

References

[1]

{1} A. V. Aho, J. E. Hopcroft, and J. D. Ullman, The Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1974.

Digital Library

[2]

{2} A. V. Aho, R. Sethi, and J. D. Ullman, Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1986.

Digital Library

[3]

{3} J. F. Bergeretti and B. A. Carré, "Information-flow and data-flow analysis of while-programs," ACM Trans. Program. Lang. Syst., vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 37-61, Jan. 1985.

Digital Library

[4]

{4} R. Cartwright and M. Felleisen, "The semantics of program dependence," in Proc. SIGPLAN '89 Conf. Programming Language Design and Implementation, ACM, New York, 1989, pp. 13-27.

[5]

{5} L. A. Clarke and D. J. Richardson, "Symbolic evaluation methods-Implementations and applications," in Computer Program Testing, B. Chandrasekaran and S. Radicchi, Eds. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: North-Holland, 1981, pp. 65-102.

[6]

{6} R. A. DeMillo, D. S. Guindi, K. N. King, W. M. McCracken, and A. J. Offutt, "An extended overview of the Mothra software testing environment," in Proc. Second Workshop Software Testing, Verification and Analysis, Banff, Alberta, July 1988, pp. 142-151.

[7]

{7} D. E. Denning and P. J. Denning, "Certification of programs for secure information flow," Commun. ACM, vol. 20, no. 7, pp. 504- 513, July 1977.

Digital Library

[8]

{8} J. Ferrante, K. J. Ottenstein, and J. D. Warren, "The program dependence graph and its use in optimization," ACM Trans. Program. Lang. Syst., vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 319-349, July 1987.

Digital Library

[9]

{9} L. D. Fosdick and L. J. Osterweil, "Data flow analysis in software reliability," ACM Comput. Surveys, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 306-330, Sept. 1976.

Digital Library

[10]

{10} P. G. Frankl, "The use of data flow information for the selection and evaluation of software test data," Doctoral dissertation, New York Univ., New York, 1987.

[11]

{11} S. A. Greibach, Theory of Program Structures: Schemes, Semantics, Verification. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1975.

[12]

{12} F. Harary, Graph Theory. Reading. MA: Addison-Wesley, 1969.

[13]

{13} S. Horwitz, J. Prins, and T. Reps, "On the adequacy of program dependence graphs for representing programs," in Proc. Fifteenth ACM Symp. Principles of Programming Languages, ACM, New York, 1988, pp. 146-157.

[14]

{14} S. Horwitz, J. Prins, and T. Reps, "Integrating non-interfering versions of programs," in Proc. Fifteenth ACM Symp. Principles of Programming Languages, ACM, New York, 1988, pp. 133-145.

[15]

{15} B. Korel, "The program dependence graph in static program testing," Inform. Processing Lett., vol. 24, pp. 103-108, Jan. 1987.

Digital Library

[16]

{16} J. W. Laski and B. Korel, "A data flow oriented program testing strategy," IEEE Trans. Software Eng., vol. SE-9, no. 3, pp. 347- 354, May 1983.

Digital Library

[17]

{17} Z. Manna, Mathematical Theory of Computation. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974.

[18]

{18} L. J. Morell, "A theory of error-based testing," Doctoral dissertation, Univ. Maryland, College Park, 1984.

[19]

{19} S. C. Ntafos, "On required element testing," IEEE Trans. Software Eng., vol. SE-10, no. 6, pp. 795-803, Nov. 1984.

Digital Library

[20]

{20} D. A. Padua and M. J. Wolfe, "Advanced compiler optimizations for supercomputers," Common. ACM, vol. 29, no. 12, pp. 1184- 1201, Dec. 1986.

Digital Library

[21]

{21} A. Podgurski, "The significance of program dependences for software testing, debugging, and maintenance," Doctoral dissertation, Dep. Comput. Inform. Sci., Univ. Massachusetts, Amherst, 1989.

[22]

{22} S. Rapps and E. J. Weyuker, "Selecting software test data using data flow information," IEEE Trans. Software Eng., vol. SE-11, no. 4, pp. 367-375, Apr. 1985.

Digital Library

[23]

{23} T. Reps and W. Yang, "The semantics of program slicing," Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, Tech. Rep., 1989.

[24]

{24} D. J. Richardson and M. C. Thompson, "The RELAY model of error detection and its application," in Proc. Second Workshop Software Testing, Verification, and Analysis. IEEE Computer Society, Los Angeles, CA, 1988.

[25]

{25} R. P. Selke, "A rewriting semantics for program dependence graphs," in Conf. Rec. 16th ACM Symp. Principles of Programming Languages , ACM, New York, 1989, pp. 12-24.

[26]

{26} M. Weiser, "Program slices: Formal, psychological, and practical investigations of an automatic program abstraction method," Doctoral dissertation, Univ. Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1979.

[27]

{27} M. Weiser, "Programmers use slices when debugging," Commun. ACM, vol. 25, no. 7, pp. 446-452, July 1982.

Digital Library

[28]

{28} M. Weiser, "Program slicing," IEEE Trans. Software Eng., vol. SE-10, no. 4, pp. 352-356, July 1984.

Digital Library

Cited By

Masud A(2023)The Duality in Computing SSA Programs and Control DependencyIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2022.319224949:4(1766-1781)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2022.3192249
Masud ALisper BEgger BSmith A(2022)On the computation of interprocedural weak control closureProceedings of the 31st ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Compiler Construction10.1145/3497776.3517782(65-76)Online publication date: 19-Mar-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3497776.3517782
Saxena AVenkatagiri SBandi R(2022)Conflict management in agile distributed development: evidence from product development and services engagementsInformation Technology and Management10.1007/s10799-022-00372-w24:3(247-266)Online publication date: 17-Aug-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10799-022-00372-w
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

A Formal Model of Program Dependences and its Implications for Software Testing, Debugging, and Maintenance

Recommendations

The significance of program dependences for software testing, debugging, and maintenance
The Implications of Program Dependences for Software Testing, Debugging,
The implications of program dependencies for software testing, debugging, and maintenance
TAV3: Proceedings of the ACM SIGSOFT '89 third symposium on Software testing, analysis, and verification

This paper presents a formal, general model of program dependencies. Two generalizations of control and data dependence, called weak and strong syntactic dependence, are presented. Some of the practical implications of program dependencies are ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering Volume 16, Issue 9

September 1990

175 pages

ISSN:0098-5589

Editor:
Victor R. Basili
Univ. of Maryland, College Park

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © Copyright © 1990 IEEE. All Rights Reserved.

Publisher

IEEE Press

Publication History

Published: 01 September 1990

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

144
Total Citations
View Citations
0
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)0
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0

Reflects downloads up to 15 Oct 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Masud A(2023)The Duality in Computing SSA Programs and Control DependencyIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2022.319224949:4(1766-1781)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2022.3192249
Masud ALisper BEgger BSmith A(2022)On the computation of interprocedural weak control closureProceedings of the 31st ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Compiler Construction10.1145/3497776.3517782(65-76)Online publication date: 19-Mar-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3497776.3517782
Saxena AVenkatagiri SBandi R(2022)Conflict management in agile distributed development: evidence from product development and services engagementsInformation Technology and Management10.1007/s10799-022-00372-w24:3(247-266)Online publication date: 17-Aug-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10799-022-00372-w
Masud A(2022)Fast and Incremental Computation of Weak Control ClosureStatic Analysis10.1007/978-3-031-22308-2_15(325-349)Online publication date: 5-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-22308-2_15
Hecker MBischof SSnelting G(2021)On Time-sensitive Control DependenciesACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/348600344:1(1-37)Online publication date: 9-Dec-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3486003
Masud ALisper B(2021)Semantic Correctness of Dependence-based Slicing for Interprocedural, Possibly Nonterminating ProgramsACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/343448942:4(1-56)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3434489
Chalupa MKlas̆ka DStrejček JTomovic̆ L(2021)Fast Computation of Strong Control DependenciesComputer Aided Verification10.1007/978-3-030-81688-9_41(887-910)Online publication date: 20-Jul-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-030-81688-9_41
Fu XCai HLi WLi L(2020)SEADSACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/337934530:1(1-45)Online publication date: 31-Dec-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3379345
Amtoft TBanerjee A(2020)A Theory of Slicing for Imperative Probabilistic ProgramsACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/337289542:2(1-71)Online publication date: 17-Apr-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3372895
Masud A(2020)Simple and Efficient Computation of Minimal Weak Control ClosureStatic Analysis10.1007/978-3-030-65474-0_10(200-222)Online publication date: 18-Nov-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-030-65474-0_10
Show More Cited By

View Options

View options

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Issue’s Table of Contents