A standard representation of imperative language programs for data collection and software.pdf

A Standard Representation of Imperative Language Programs James M. Bieman David A. Gustafson Albert L. Baker1 Austin C. Melton Paul N. Clites Department of Computer Science Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 50011 (515) 294-4377 Computer Science Department Kansas State University Manhattan, Kansas 66506 (913) 532-6350 Keywords software tools, software measures, program representation Published in Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 13-37, Jan. 1988. Abstract Numerous research results in the areas of software measures and software tools are predicated on a particular programming language, or on some characterizations of a programming language. For example, numerous software measures have been dened only for structured programming languages and several of the reported approaches to program testing dene a specic language. However, this prolifera- tion of languages upon which measures and tools are dened makes independent evaluation and comparison of measures and tools problematic. We propose a standard representation of imperative language programs which is independent of the syntax of any particular programming language, yet the stan- dard representation supports the denition of a wide range of tools and measures. Additionally, the standard representation will allow for the masking of actual pro- gram semantics. Thus the standard representation provides a vehicle by which large volumes of industrial software might be made available to researchers while protecting the proprietary nature of the programs. 1Dr. Baker is currently a Shell Faculty Fellow, supported in part by the Shell Companies Foundation, Inc. 1 Introduction Programmers, managers and researchers need quantitative descriptions of software. Soft- ware continues to increase in complexity with a corresponding decrease in the ability of developers to understand major portions of projects. Developers need enhanced tools to help them understand modern software, and some of these enhanced tools