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Semantics directed program execution monitoring†

Part of: JFP Research Articles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Amir Kishon  and
Paul Hudak
Amir Kishon
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA e-mail: {kishon,hudak}@cs.yale.edu
Paul Hudak
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA e-mail: {kishon,hudak}@cs.yale.edu
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Abstract

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Monitoring semantics is a formal model of program execution which captures ‘monitoring activity’ as found in profilers, tracers, debuggers, etc. Beyond its theoretical interest, this formalism provides a new methodology for implementing a large family of source-level monitoring activities for sequential deterministic programming languages. In this article we explore the use of monitoring semantics in the specification and implementation of a variety of monitors: profilers, tracers, collecting interpreters, and, most importantly, interactive source-level debuggers. Although we consider such monitors only for (both strict and non-strict) functional languages, the methodology extends easily to imperative languages, since it begins with a continuation semantics specification.

In addition, using standard partial evaluation techniques as an optimization strategy, we show that the methodology forms a practical basis for building real monitors. Our system can be optimized at two levels of specialization: specializing the interpreter with respect to a monitor specification automatically yields an instrumented interpreter; further specializing this instrumented interpreter with respect to a source program yields an instrumented program, i.e. one in which the extra code to perform monitoring has been automatically embedded into the program.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Functional Programming , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , October 1995 , pp. 501 - 547
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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