Re: Transformations of pointer parameters in C

All,


> I want to do a transformation of C-programs to eliminate some
> pointers. As C has no reference parameters, they are often emulated
> like this:
>
> Has anybody done something like that before? (Of course, you can think
> of more complicated examples, where the actual argument is a
> pointer...)


About 6 years ago we translated C to a language that had no pointers (it
was a language used in the Malpas formal analysis toolkit).


It was done by replacing pointer references by a list of symbolic names
used to represent things that the pointer might point at. The
analysis was only done on a single file at a time, but suprisingly
good results were acheived.


Check out www.knosof.co.uk/ctoa.html for a bit more info (this paper
discusses translating C to Ada).


derek


--
Derek M Jones tel: +44 (0) 1252 520 667
Knowledge Software Ltd email: derek@knosof.co.uk
                                                                                                  http://www.knosof.co.uk
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