Path feasibility, linear optimizers and the evaluate standard form

  • Authors:

  • P. David Coward

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Computer Studies, Bristol Polytechnic, Coldharbour Lane, Frenchay, Bristol, BSI6 1QY, UK and Department of Computing, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

  • Venue:
  • ACM SIGPLAN Notices
  • Year:
  • 1991

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Abstract

Symbolic execution of a path through the source program can be used to assist in the generation of a test case to execute the path. One important step in this process is the assessment of the feasibility of the path. Numerical optimizers can be used for solving the set of constraints provided by the path condition (Boye75, Rama76). The construction of an optimization problem from a source program can be automated. The usual way to approach this is to translate the source program into an intermediate representation more suitable for extracting and symbolically executing paths (Asir79, Rama76).The creation of an intermediate form can be achieved in two ways. First, by direct translation from the source program. This requires a complex translator. Second, the source program can undergo several steps of translation into simpler or standard forms in the source language. The final version of the 'source' program is then translated into the intermediate form by a comparatively simple translator. This paper describes a series of translations which can be made to a COBOL source program. The EVALUATE construct provides a standard form for branching.