Abstract
Programmers using imperative languages have a number of well-established debugging tools available to them; functional programmers have few, if any, tools available. Many of the tools and techniques developed for debugging functional programs are based on those for imperative programming and lack a theoretical basis relevant to functional programming. In addition, the techniques used are typically very time-consuming. A theoretical foundation on which to base the study of errors and debugging in functional programming is presented in this paper. Using this theoretical foundation, a set of program transformation schemes has been developed which facilitate the location of the type of error which results in an evaluation-time error message and the termination of evaluation. A brief description of the practical experience obtained using the tool is also presented.
The author is supported by a grant from the Science and Engineering Research Council of Great Britain.
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© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Hazan, J.E., Morgan, R.G. (1993). The location of errors in functional programs. In: Fritzson, P.A. (eds) Automated and Algorithmic Debugging. AADEBUG 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 749. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0019406
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0019406
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