Open AccessTowards a Generic Framework for Trustworthy Program Refactoring
Author(s) -
Dániel Horpácsi,
Judit Kőszegi,
Dávid János Németh
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
acta cybernetica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.143
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 2676-993X
pISSN - 0324-721X
DOI - 10.14232/actacyb.284349
Subject(s) - code refactoring , computer science , executable , programming language , implementation , semantics (computer science) , formalism (music) , program transformation , equivalence (formal languages) , trustworthiness , formal verification , program analysis , software engineering , software , art , musical , linguistics , philosophy , computer security , visual arts
Refactoring has to preserve the dynamics of the transformed program with respect to a particular definition of semantics and behavioral equivalence. Apparently, it is always challenging to relate executable refactoring implementations with the formal semantics of the transformed language. There are a number of approaches to specifying program transformations on various kinds of program models, but trustworthiness of refactoring is still to be improved by means of formal verification. We propose a specification formalism and a generic framework for its processing, which claims to allow semi-automatic execution and formal verification, as well as to be adaptable to multiple paradigms.