A System for Understanding Mathematical FORTRAN Programs,

Abstract

This paper proposes a system which, when implemented, will be able to understand mathematical FORTRAN programs, such as those in the IBM Scientific Subroutine Package. The system takes, as input, a program and annotation of the program. In order to understand the program, the system develops a 'plan' for it. The plan specifies the purpose of each feature of the program, and how these features cooperate in order to create the behavior exhibited by the program. The system can use its understanding of the program to answer questions about it including questions about the ramifications of a proposed modification. It is also able to aid in debugging the program by detecting errors in it, and by locating the features of the program which are responsible for an error. The system should be of significant assistance to a person who is writing a program. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1976
Accession Number
ADA031884

Entities

People

  • Richard C. Waters

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Automatic Programming
  • Causal Reasoning
  • Computational Science
  • Computations
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Connective Tissue
  • Debugging
  • Electronic Circuits
  • High Level Languages
  • Language
  • Procedures (Computers)
  • Programming Languages
  • Reasoning
  • Software Development

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

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  • Computational Linguistics
  • Computer Science.