Abstract :
We propose a new paradigm to query information about programs,
namely query by outlines . This paradigm relies on an outlining model
that conceptually describe units of code according
to the computations they perform. Outlines are automatically constructed
by our system PRISME for C and Lisp programs. Currently, both our model and our
system are restricted to loops.
QBO is a prototype tool that implements the query by outline paradigm. It
proposes to browse the loops of a program directly through their outline,
and allows to restrict these loops to browse with queries expressed as constraints
on the outlines. Thus it enables to answer questions such as ``where is this
variable modified?'', ``where is this kind of computation
performed?'', or ``are there many places where this computation is performed?''.
In this paper, we sketch our outlining model, introduce QBO and argue that
query by outline is a helpful paradigm to manage programs.
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