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Dynamic slicing of lazy functional programs based on redex trails

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Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation

Abstract

Tracing computations is a widely used methodology for program debugging. Lazy languages, however, pose new demands on tracing techniques because following the actual trace of a computation is generally useless. Typically, tracers for lazy languages rely on the construction of a redex trail, a graph that stores the reductions performed in a computation. While tracing provides a significant help for locating bugs, the task still remains complex. A well-known debugging technique for imperative programs is based on dynamic slicing, a method for finding the program statements that influence the computation of a value for a specific program input.

In this work, we introduce a novel technique for dynamic slicing in first-order lazy functional languages. Rather than starting from scratch, our technique relies on (a slight extension of) redex trails. We provide a notion of dynamic slice and introduce a method to compute it from the redex trail of a computation. We also sketch the extension of our technique to deal with a functional logic language. A clear advantage of our proposal is that one can enhance existing tracers with slicing capabilities with a modest implementation effort, since the same data structure (the redex trail) can be used for both tracing and slicing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DIA, Technical University of Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo s/n, 28660, Boadilla del Monte, Spain

    Claudio Ochoa

  2. DSIC, Technical University of Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    Josep Silva & Germán Vidal

Authors
  1. Claudio Ochoa
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  2. Josep Silva
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  3. Germán Vidal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Germán Vidal.

Additional information

A preliminary version of this paper appeared in the Proceedings of PEPM’04 [19]. This work has been partially supported by EU (FEDER) and Spanish MEC under grants TIN2004-00231, TIN2005-09207-C03-02, and Acción Integrada HA2006-0008.

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Ochoa, C., Silva, J. & Vidal, G. Dynamic slicing of lazy functional programs based on redex trails. Higher-Order Symb Comput 21, 147–192 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10990-008-9023-7

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