Speaker: Aharon Abadi, IBM Research – Haifa

Title: Fine Slicing, Theory and Applications for Computation Extraction

Abstract:
Software evolution often requires the separation of different computations
entangled in the code. Particularly challenging and error-prone is the task
of separating computations that are intertwined in a loop. The lack of
automatic tools for such transformations complicates maintenance and
hinders reuse.  We present a theory and implementation of fine slicing, a
method for computing executable program slices that can be finely tuned,
and can be used to extract non-contiguous pieces of code and untangle
loops.  Unlike previous solutions, it supports temporal abstraction of
series of values computed in a loop in the form of newly-created sequences.
Fine slicing has proved useful in capturing meaningful subprograms and has
enabled the creation of an advanced computation-extraction algorithm and
its implementation in a prototype refactoring tool for Cobol and Java in
Eclipse.

joint work with Ran Ettinger and Yishai A. Feldman