The Evolution of Programs: A System for Automatic Program Modification.

Abstract

An attempt is made to formulate techniques of program modification, whereby a program that achieves one result can be transformed into a new program that uses the same principles to achieve a different goal. For example, a program that uses the binary search paradigm to calculate the square-root of a number may be modified to divide two numbers in a similar manner, or vice versa. Program debugging is considered as a special case of modification: if a program computes wrong results, it must be modified to achieve the intended results. The application of abstract program schemata to concrete problems is also viewed from the perspective or modification techniques. We have embedded this approach in a running implementation; our methods are illustrated with several examples that have been performed by it. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1976
Accession Number
ADA042516

Entities

People

  • Nachum Dershowitz
  • Zohar Manna

Organizations

  • Stanford University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Automatic
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Concrete
  • Construction
  • Debugging
  • Numbers
  • Operations Research
  • Personal Information Managers
  • Specifications
  • Square Roots
  • United States
  • Universities

Fields of Study

  • Computer science
  • Engineering

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Computer Science.
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.