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Generative Program Analysis and Beyond: The Power of Domain-Specific Languages (Invited Paper)

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Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation (VMCAI 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 12597))

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Abstract

In this paper we position Linear Time Temporal Logic (LTL), structural operational semantics (SOS), and a graphical generalization of BNF as central DSLs for program analysis and verification tasks in order to illustrate the impact of language to the mindset: (1) Specifying program analyses in LTL changes the classical algorithmic ‘HOW’ thinking into a property-oriented ‘WHAT’ thinking that allows one to logically combine analysis goals and eases proofs. (2) Playing with the original store component in SOS configurations allows one to elegantly realize variants of abstract program interpretations, and to align different aspects, like e.g., the symbolic values of variables and path conditions. (3) Specializing languages by refining their BNF-like meta models has the power to lift certain verification tasks from the program to the programming language level. We will illustrate the advantages of the change of mindset imposed by these three DSLs, as well as the fact that these advantages come at low price due to available adequate generator technology.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This work was based on bi-directional branching time temporal logics, which has later been replaced by bi-directional LTL.

  2. 2.

    \(\phi \, U \psi \), in contrast to \(\phi \, W \psi \), requires \(\psi \) to hold eventually.

  3. 3.

    Please note that the meaning of ‘state’ in this section only concerns \(\varSigma \), in contrast to the other sections, where ‘state’ denotes nodes of a transitions system.

  4. 4.

    For the sake of simplicity, we use an uniform assignment pattern \(x=a+b\) in the example. This allows us to eliminate complete statements without keeping track on temporaries. A detailed discourse on the issue of assignment vs. expression motion can be found in [22].

  5. 5.

    In a realistic setting minimization would take conditions of branching into account.

  6. 6.

    Alternatively, one can regard CFMTSs also as extensions of Context-Free Process Systems [5] to allow may transitions.

  7. 7.

    Modal refinement preserves properties specified in branching-time temporal logic [30].

  8. 8.

    The treatment of multiple procedures can be achieved either via a preprocess that constructs individual ‘A’-like properties for each procedure, or by enhancing the modeling language towards an adequate notion of Context-Free Modal Register Automata (cf. [16] for the definition of register automata). Whereas the former approach is rather straightforward the latter approach is part of our envisioned future work which, in particular, concerns the corresponding model checking problems.

  9. 9.

    Directed Acyclic Graph [56].

  10. 10.

    DTD stands for Document Type Descriptions.

  11. 11.

    This leads to very tolerant process specifications, similar to what is aimed at it with CMMN [38] in order to overcome the over specification easily imposed when using e.g. BPMN [37].

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank David Schmidt for his constructive comments that helped us to significantly improve the readability of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Programming Systems, TU Dortmund University, Otto-Hahn-Str. 14, 44227, Dortmund, Germany

    Bernhard Steffen & Alnis Murtovi

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  1. Bernhard Steffen
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  2. Alnis Murtovi
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Correspondence to Bernhard Steffen .

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  1. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Fritz Henglein

  2. Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Sharon Shoham

  3. Technion, Haifa, Israel

    Yakir Vizel

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Steffen, B., Murtovi, A. (2021). Generative Program Analysis and Beyond: The Power of Domain-Specific Languages (Invited Paper). In: Henglein, F., Shoham, S., Vizel, Y. (eds) Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation. VMCAI 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12597. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67067-2_3

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