Using generic and generated components to create static software analysis tools faster

Abstract

In today's software engineering tool landscape, many sophisticated imperative static source code analysis tools exist. However the implementations of these analyses are normally tied to specific languages, so must be recreated for any new or lesser-known languages. It can be burdensome for small groups of language developers or third party tool authors to devote the necessary resources to creating an analysis tool suite specifically for their language, so a number of less popular languages lack such automated tool support to the detriment of their users. As a solution this paper argues that multiple analysis algorithms exist which are applicable to almost any high-level imperative programming language, and that support for them can be added to a language cheaply with a high degree of automation. Pursuit of these would provide a new way of gathering knowledge about application structure for languages that have not previously enjoyed strong tool support.