Challenging the Stigma of Formal Program Repair

Abstract

Formal program repair automatically finds a patch to a program that makes it meet a formal specification, such as a logical formula. That is, a repair obtained through formal program repair is required to satisfy the specification for all possible inputs. In this short paper, we examine formal program repair from three aspects: efficiency, scalability, and repair quality. In particular, we present evidence to undermine the stigma that formal program repair is inefficient. We hope that by doing so this paper is able to attract researchers towards engaging in this type of repair.