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Type test elimination using typeflow analysis

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Programming Languages and System Architectures

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 782))

Abstract

Programs written in languages of the Oberon family usually contain runtime tests on the dynamic type of variables. In some cases it may be desirable to reduce the number of such tests. Typeflow analysis is a static method of determining bounds on the types that objects may possess at runtime. We show that this analysis is able to reduce the number of tests in certain plausible circumstances. Furthermore, the same analysis is able to detect certain program errors at compile time, which would normally only be detected at program execution. This paper introduces the concepts of typeflow analysis and details its use in the reduction of runtime overhead in Oberon-2.

This work is supported by the Cooperative Research Centre for Distributed Systems Technology

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

    Diane Corney & John Gough

Authors
  1. Diane Corney
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  2. John Gough
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Jürg Gutknecht

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Corney, D., Gough, J. (1994). Type test elimination using typeflow analysis. In: Gutknecht, J. (eds) Programming Languages and System Architectures. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 782. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57840-4_29

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57840-4_29

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-57840-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48356-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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