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Set-based analysis of ML programs

Author:

Nevin HeintzeAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGPLAN Lisp Pointers, Volume VII, Issue 3

Pages 306 - 317

https://doi.org/10.1145/182590.182495

Published: 01 July 1994 Publication History

Abstract

Reasoning about program variables as sets of “values” leads to a simple, accurate and intuitively appealing notion of program approximation. This paper presents approach for the compile-time analysis of ML programs. To develop the core ideas of the analysis, we consider a simple untyped call-by-value functional language. Starting with an operational semantics for the language, we develop an approximate “set-based” operational semantics, which formalizes the intuition of treating program variables as sets. The key result of the paper is an O(n³) algorithm for computing the set based approximation of a program. We then extend this analysis in a natural way to deal with arrays, arithmetic, exceptions and continuations. We briefly describe our experience with an implementation of this analysis for ML programs.

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Cited By

Montagu BJensen TFreund SYahav E(2021)Trace-based control-flow analysisProceedings of the 42nd ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation10.1145/3453483.3454057(482-496)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3453483.3454057
Montagu BJensen T(2020)Stable relations and abstract interpretation of higher-order programsProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/34090014:ICFP(1-30)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3409001
Heinze TMøller AStrocco FIerusalimschy R(2016)Type safety analysis for DartProceedings of the 12th Symposium on Dynamic Languages10.1145/2989225.2989226(1-12)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2016
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Index Terms

Set-based analysis of ML programs
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Compilers
    2. General programming languages
      1. Language types
2. Theory of computation
  1. Semantics and reasoning
    1. Program constructs
      1. Type structures
    2. Program semantics
      1. Operational semantics

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Published In

cover image ACM SIGPLAN Lisp Pointers

ACM SIGPLAN Lisp Pointers Volume VII, Issue 3

July-Sept. 1994

327 pages

ISSN:1045-3563

DOI:10.1145/182590

Editor:
Robert R. Kessler
Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City

Issue’s Table of Contents

LFP '94: Proceedings of the 1994 ACM conference on LISP and functional programming
July 1994
327 pages
ISBN:0897916433
DOI:10.1145/182409
Chairman:
Robert R. Kessler
Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City

Copyright © 1994 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Publication History

Published: 01 July 1994

Published in SIGPLAN-LISPPOINTERS Volume VII, Issue 3

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Cited By

Montagu BJensen TFreund SYahav E(2021)Trace-based control-flow analysisProceedings of the 42nd ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation10.1145/3453483.3454057(482-496)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3453483.3454057
Montagu BJensen T(2020)Stable relations and abstract interpretation of higher-order programsProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/34090014:ICFP(1-30)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3409001
Heinze TMøller AStrocco FIerusalimschy R(2016)Type safety analysis for DartProceedings of the 12th Symposium on Dynamic Languages10.1145/2989225.2989226(1-12)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2989225.2989226
Ali KRapoport MLhoták ODolby JTip F(2014)Constructing Call Graphs of Scala ProgramsProceedings of the 28th European Conference on ECOOP 2014 --- Object-Oriented Programming - Volume 858610.1007/978-3-662-44202-9_3(54-79)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-662-44202-9_3
Fluet M(2013)A Type- and Control-Flow Analysis for System FImplementation and Application of Functional Languages10.1007/978-3-642-41582-1_8(122-139)Online publication date: 16-Nov-2013
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41582-1_8
Midtgaard JJensen T(2012)Control-flow analysis of function calls and returns by abstract interpretationInformation and Computation10.1016/j.ic.2011.11.005211(49-76)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ic.2011.11.005
Seidl HReuí A(2011)Extending H1-clauses with disequalitiesInformation Processing Letters10.1016/j.ipl.2011.07.011111:20(1007-1013)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ipl.2011.07.011
Seidl HWilhelm RHack SSeidl HWilhelm RHack S(2010)Optimierung funktionaler ProgrammeÜbersetzerbau10.1007/978-3-642-03331-5_3(139-169)Online publication date: 2010
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03331-5_3
Jang DChoe KShin SOssowski S(2009)Points-to analysis for JavaScriptProceedings of the 2009 ACM symposium on Applied Computing10.1145/1529282.1529711(1930-1937)Online publication date: 8-Mar-2009
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Nandivada VJagannathan S(2006)Dynamic state restoration using versioning exceptionsHigher-Order and Symbolic Computation10.1007/s10990-006-8610-819:1(101-124)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10990-006-8610-8
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