Function-theoretic principles of program understanding

The authors propose a comprehensive methodology for automated program abstraction of computer programs. The theoretical foundations that support program abstraction are functional abstraction, data analysis, program slicing, and pattern matching. The theory of functional abstraction is applied to an example program. The localization of data scope is described as a step to facilitate the abstraction process. Techniques are presented for automatically abstracting the functions of both nonlooping and looping control structures.<<ETX>>