Abstract :
We introduce QBO, or Query by Outlines,
a tool specially developed to help exploring programs. It
relies on a previously implemented system able to automatically
construct outlines of linear loops identified in programs.
It proposes an outline storage mechanism altogether with a query algorithm
that enables outlines to be efficiently retrieved.
QBO eases exploration of programs, thus
program management, clone
detection or plan recognition can be envisaged at lower cost:
as outlines are already computed and indexed, only high level constructs have to be
checked. Therefore, answering queries is a rather fast process.
In this paper, we sketch our outlining model, present our query tool and
discuss how query by outlines may help explore programs.
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