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A Generic Preprocessor for Program Validation and Debugging

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Analysis and Visualization Tools for Constraint Programming

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1870))

Abstract

We present a generic preprocessor for combined static/dynamic validation and debugging of constraint logic programs. Passing programs through the preprocessor prior to execution allows detecting many bugs automatically. This is achieved by performing a repertoire of tests which range from simple syntactic checks to much more advanced checks based on static analysis of the program. Together with the program, the user may provide a series of assertions which trigger further automatic checking of the program. Such assertions are written using the assertion language presented in Chapter 1, which allows expressing a wide variety of properties. These properties extend beyond the predefined set which may be understandable by the available static analysers and include properties defined by means of user programs. In addition to user-provided assertions, in each particular CLP system assertions may be available for predefined system predicates. Checking of both user-provided assertions and assertions for system predicates is attempted first at compile-time by comparing them with the results of static analysis. This may allow statically proving that the assertions hold (i.e., they are validated) or that they are violated (and thus bugs detected). User-provided assertions (or parts of assertions) which cannot be statically proved nor disproved are optionally translated into run-time tests. The implementation of the preprocessor is generic in that it can be easily customised to different CLP systems and dialects and in that it is designed to allow the integration of additional analyses in a simple way. We also report on two tools which are instances of the generic preprocessor: CiaoPP (for the Ciao Prolog system) and CHIPRE (for the CHIP CLP(FD) system). The currently existing analyses include types, modes, non-failure, determinacy, and computational cost, and can treat modules separately, performing incremental analysis.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science, Technical University of Madrid, S-28660, Madrid, Spain

    Germán Puebla, Francisco Bueno & Manuel Hermenegildo

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  1. Germán Puebla
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  2. Francisco Bueno
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  3. Manuel Hermenegildo
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inria-Rocquencourt, BP 105, 78153, Le Chesnay Cedex, France

    Pierre Deransart

  2. School of Computer Science, Technical University of Madrid, 28660, Madrid, Spain

    Manuel V. Hermenegildo

  3. Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköpings University, 581 83, Linköping, Sweden

    Jan Małuszynski

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Puebla, G., Bueno, F., Hermenegildo, M. (2000). A Generic Preprocessor for Program Validation and Debugging. In: Deransart, P., Hermenegildo, M.V., Małuszynski, J. (eds) Analysis and Visualization Tools for Constraint Programming. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1870. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/10722311_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/10722311_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-41137-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-40016-5

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