Abstract Interpretation and Attribute Gramars

    Research output: Book/ReportPh.D. thesis

    Abstract

    The objective of this thesis is to explore the connections between abstract interpretation and attribute grammars as frameworks in program analysis. Abstract interpretation is a semantics-based program analysis method. A large class of data flow analysis problems can be expressed as non-standard semantics where the ``meaning'' contains information about the runtime behaviour of programs. In an abstract interpretation the analysis is proved correct by relating it to the usual semantics for the language. Attribute grammars provide a method and notation to specify code generation and program analysis directly from the syntax of the programming language. They are especially used for describing compilation of programming languages and very efficient evaluators have been developed for subclasses of attribute grammars. By relating abstract interpretation and attribute grammars we obtain a closer connection between the specification and implementation of abstract interpretations which at the same time facilitates the correctness proofs of interpretations. Implementation and specification of abstract interpretations using circular attribute grammars is realised with an evaluator system for a class of domain theoretic attribute grammars. In this system thecircularity of attribute grammars is resolved by fixpoint iteration. The use of finite lattices in abstract interpretations requires automatic generation of specialised fixpoint iterators. This is done using a technique called lazy fixpoint iteration which is presented in the thesis. Methods from abstract interpretation can also be used in correctness proofs of attribute grammars. This proof technique introduces a new class of attribute grammars based on domain theory. This method is illustrated with examples.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationCambridge, England
    PublisherCambridge University Press
    Number of pages134
    Publication statusPublished - 1991

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