Characterization and Automatic Identification of Type Infeasible Call Chains

Author : Souter, Amie; Pollock, Lori
Date : 2002
Journal : Information and Software Technology
Volume : 44
Issue : 13
Pages : 721-732
Keyword(s) : object-oriented, static program analysis, call chains
Document Type : Article

Abstract :

Many software engineering applications utilize static program analyses to gain information about programs. Some applications perform static analysis over the whole program’s call graph, while others are more interested in specific call chains within a program’s call graph. A particular static call chain for an object-oriented program may in fact be impossible to execute, or infeasible, such that there is no input for which the chain will be taken. Identifying infeasible static call chains can save time and resources with respect to the targeted software development tool. This paper examines type infeasibility of call chains, which may be caused by inherently polymorphic call sites and are sometimes due to imprecision in call graphs.

Paper Link