Program developments

Abstract

Abstract : Automated program transformation systems are emerging as the basis for a new programming methodology in which high-level, understandable specifications are transformed into efficient programs. Subsequent modification of the original specification will be dealt with by reimplementation of the specification. For such a system to be practical, these reimplementations must occur relatively quickly and reliably, in comparison with the original implementation. We believe the reimplementation requirement necessitates that a formal document--the program development--be constructed during the development process to explain the resulting implementation to future maintainters of the specification. The overall goal of our work has been to develop a language for capturing and explaining these developments and the resulting implementations. This language must be capable of expressing: the implementor's goal structure, all program manipulations necessary for implementation and optimization, and plans of such optimizations. In this report, we discuss the documentation requirements of the development process and then describe a prototype system for constructing and maintaining this documentation information. Finally, we indicate the many remaining open issues and the direction to be taken in the pursuit of solutions. (Author)