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On the adequacy of dependence-based representations for programs with heaps

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Theoretical Aspects of Computer Software (TACS 1991)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 526))

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Abstract

Program dependence graphs (pdgs) are popular tools for reasoning about a program's semantics. This report proves two fundamental theorems about the representational soundness of pdgs for languages with heap-allocated storage and reference variables. The first, the Pointer-Language Equivalence Theorem, asserts that pdgs adequately represent a program's meaning. The second, the Pointer-Language Slicing Theorem, asserts that pdgs adequately represent a program's threads of computation. These theorems are demonstrated with two new lemmas about the semantics of pdgs for languages that lack pointer variables. These lemmas, the Dynamic Equivalence and Dynamic Slicing Theorems, state that an edge can safely be removed from a program's pdg if this edge represents a static dependence that does not arise at run-time.

This work was supported in part by a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, by the National Science Foundation under grants DCR-8552602 and CCR-8958530, by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, monitored by the Office of Naval Research under contract N00014-88-K-0590, as well as by grants from IBM, DEC, and Xerox.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Wisconsin, Madison

    Phil Pfeiffer

  2. Rice University, USA

    Rebecca Parsons Selke

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  1. Phil Pfeiffer
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  2. Rebecca Parsons Selke
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Takayasu Ito Albert R. Meyer

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© 1991 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Pfeiffer, P., Selke, R.P. (1991). On the adequacy of dependence-based representations for programs with heaps. In: Ito, T., Meyer, A.R. (eds) Theoretical Aspects of Computer Software. TACS 1991. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 526. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-54415-1_55

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-54415-1_55

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-54415-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47617-7

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