Generating and employing operational abstractions of transforms

An apparatus for employing a software model transform, said apparatus comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith and executable by the at least one processor, the computer readable program code comprising:
• computer readable program code configured to accept a software model transform;
• computer readable program code configured to manipulate the transform to obtain a transform representation;
• computer readable program code configured to produce an abstraction of the transform via:
• forcibly exploring a plurality of paths one by one via a blank input model, with respect to the transform representation;
• wherein the exploring comprises undertaking selective path exploration which is based on dependence chains starting at an input-model entity and terminating at an output statement;
• conducting a trace of at least one explored path via producing at least one taint log, wherein the at least one taint log includes a trace of at least one explored path, the trace including loop, data and control taint information;
• and
• producing an abstraction of the transform via utilizing the trace, the abstraction comprising a simplified semantic view of the transform;
• wherein the abstraction conveys:
• literals, at least one input-model entity, repeating fragments and conditional fragments, output fragments and guards;
• wherein each literal is created for a data taint in the trace;
• wherein each conditional fragment is created for a control taint in the trace, from a relational expression captured in the control taint information;
• wherein each repeating fragment is created for a loop taint in the trace;
• wherein, for a path of consecutive control taints, a conjunction of guards is created;
• and
• wherein, for two sibling control taints for the same statement but different branches, alternative output fragments are created.

A computer program product for employing a software model transform, said computer program product comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:
• computer readable program code configured to accept a software model transform;
• computer readable program code configured to manipulate the transform to obtain a transform representation;
• computer readable program code configured to produce an abstraction of the transform via:
• forcibly exploring a plurality of paths one by one via a blank input model, with respect to the transform representation;
• wherein the exploring comprises undertaking selective path exploration which is based on dependence chains starting at an input-model entity and terminating at an output statement;
• conducting a trace of at least one explored path via producing at least one taint log, wherein the at least one taint log includes a trace of at least one explored path, the trace including loop, data and control taint information;
• and
• producing an abstraction of the transform via utilizing the trace, the abstraction comprising a simplified semantic view of the transform;
• wherein the abstraction conveys:
• literals, at least one input-model entity, repeating fragments and conditional fragments, output fragments and guards;
• wherein each literal is created for a data taint in the trace;
• wherein each conditional fragment is created for a control taint in the trace, from a relational expression captured in the control taint information;
• wherein each repeating fragment is created for a loop taint in the trace;
• wherein, for a path of consecutive control taints, a conjunction of guards is created;
• and
• wherein, for two sibling control taints for the same statement but different branches, alternative output fragments are created.

A method comprising:

• accepting a software model transform;
• manipulating the transform to obtain a raw transform representation;
• producing an abstraction of the transform via:
• conducting forced path exploration with respect to a plurality of paths found in the raw transform representation;
• wherein said conducting of forced path exploration comprises:
• forcibly exploring the plurality of paths one by one via a blank input model, with respect to the raw transform representation;
• and
• undertaking selective path exploration which is based on dependence chains starting at an input-model entity and terminating at an output statement;
• conducting a trace of at least one explored path via producing a taint log, wherein the at least one taint log includes a trace of at least one explored path, the trace including loop, data and control taint information;
• and
• producing an abstraction of the transform via utilizing the taint log, the abstraction comprising a simplified semantic view of the transform;
• wherein the abstraction conveys:
• literals, at least one input-model entity, repeating fragments and conditional fragments, output fragments and guards;
• wherein each literal is created for a data taint in the trace;
• wherein each conditional fragment is created for a control taint in the trace, from a relational expression captured in the control taint information;
• wherein each repeating fragment is created for a loop taint in the trace;
• wherein, for a path of consecutive control taints, a conjunction of guards is created;
• and
• wherein, for two sibling control taints for the same statement but different branches, alternative output fragments are created.