Program Understanding and Re-engineering: Calculi and Applications

The aim of the PURe research project is to develop calculi for program understanding and re-engineering. Formal techniques that have traditionally been developed for and applied to forward engineering of software, are applied in reverse direction, i.e. for the understanding and re-engineering of existing (legacy) program code. Read more.

Research Team

• Alexandra Silva [Graduate Student]
• AlcinoCunha [UM Staff]
• CesarRodrigues [PhD Student]
• Joao Fernandes [PhD Student]
• JoaoSaraiva [UM Staff]
• JorgeSousaPinto [UM Staff]
• JoseBacelarAlmeida [UM Staff]
• JoseBarros [UM Staff]
• José Miguel Vilaça [PhD Student]
• JoseNunoOliveira [UM Staff]
• José Pedro Correia [Graduate Student]
• José Proença [Graduate Student]
• Joost Visser [Post Doc Fellow]
• LuisSoaresBarbosa [UM Staff]
• MarcoAntonioBarbosa [PhD Student]
• NunoRodrigues [PhD Student]
• Paulo Silva [PhD Student]
• Tiago Alves [MSc Student]

PURe-related research opportunities (at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels) are announced here.

Goals

The project aims to produce relevant contributions in the following areas:

• Classification (of algorithms, components and architectures)
• Refinement calculi (for data structures, algorithms and components)
• Complexity inference
• Reverse engineering techniques and calculi
• Technology of visual animation tools for the developed calculi

Events

• PUReCafe: weekly scientific colloquium. Local and invited speakers cover a wide range of subjects and spark lively debate.
• First PURe Workshop and other events.

Results

• Publications: papers, technical reports.
• Software: libraries and tools.

More information can be found in the Y1 and Y2 Progress Reports.

Selected subprojects

• Camila: VDM-like formal specification inside the functional programming language Haskell.
• VooDooM: Analysis, transformation, and translation of VDM-SL specifications.
• GenericSlicing: development of generic slicing techniques.
• PointFree: development of tools and libraries to program and reason in the point-free style of programming.
• 2LT: Two-level transformation, for data mappings, format evolution, query migrations, and more.

Forthcoming projects

• Spreadsheet Understanding: Program understanding and reverse engennering techniques adapted to spreadsheets.

Project info

Links to Related Projects/Sites

• Program Slicing
• Refactoring Home Page
• Refactoring Functional Programs
• Nate tool
• Programatica Project