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      Object representatives: a uniform abstraction for pointer information

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      proceedings-article
      1 , 2 , 1
      Visions of Computer Science - BCS International Academic Conference (VOCS)
      BCS International Academic Conference
      22 - 24 September 2008
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            Abstract

            Pointer analyses enable many subsequent program analyses and transformations by statically disambiguating references to the heap. However, different client analyses may have different sets of pointer analysis needs, and each must pick some pointer analysis along the cost/precision spectrum to meet those needs. Some analysis clients employ combinations of pointer analyses to obtain better precision with reduced analysis times. Our goal is to ease the task of developing client analyses by enabling composition and substitutability for pointer analyses. We therefore propose object representatives, which statically represent runtime objects. A representative encapsulates the notion of object identity, as observed through the representative’s aliasing relations with other representatives. Object representatives enable pointer analysis clients to disambiguate references to the heap in a uniform yet flexible way. Representatives can be generated from many combinations of pointer analyses, and pointer analyses can be freely exchanged and combined without changing client code. We believe that the use of object representatives brings many software engineering benefits to compiler implementations because, at compile time, object representatives are Java objects. We discuss our motivating case for object representatives, namely, the development of an abstract interpreter for tracematches, a language feature for runtime monitoring. We explain one particular algorithm for computing object representatives which combines flow- sensitive intraprocedural must-alias and must-not-alias analyses with a flow-insensitive, context-sensitive whole-program points-to analysis. In our experience, client analysis implementations can almost directly substitute object representatives for runtime objects, simplifying the design and implementation of such analyses.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Contributors
            Conference
            September 2008
            September 2008
            : 391-405
            Affiliations
            [ 1 ]School of Computer Science, McGill University
            [ 2 ]Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo
            Article
            10.14236/ewic/VOCS2008.32
            a69b0d62-4c36-4482-959f-3961623913cc
            © Eric Bodden et al. Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd. Visions of Computer Science - BCS International Academic Conference

            This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

            Visions of Computer Science - BCS International Academic Conference
            VOCS
            Imperial College, London, UK
            22 - 24 September 2008
            Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)
            BCS International Academic Conference
            History
            Product

            1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

            Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/VOCS2008.32
            Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/
            Categories
            Electronic Workshops in Computing

            Applied computer science,Computer science,Security & Cryptology,Graphics & Multimedia design,General computer science,Human-computer-interaction

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