SFAC, a tool for program comprehension by specialization

Abstract

This paper describes a tool for facilitating the comprehension of general programs using automatic specialization. The goal of this approach was to assist in the maintenance of old programs, which have become very complex due to numerous extensions. This paper explains why this approach was chosen, how the tool's architecture was set up, and how the correctness of the specialization has been proved. Then, it discusses the results obtained by using this tool, and the future evolutions.<>