Problem domain, structural and logical abstractions in reverse engineering

Reverse engineering abstractions are considered. Three kinds of abstractions are identified: problem domain, structural, and logical. Problem domain abstractions correspond to concepts from a program's application area. Structural abstractions are used to eliminate implementation details and redundant information. Logical abstractions are properties that can be logically derived from code. A method for generating functional specifications is described, which incorporates the abstraction techniques. It has been applied to a variety of COBOL programs and been found to generate natural abstract program descriptions. The authors describe work in progress, including the construction of an analysis tool that will be used to help verify the approach and to assess its complexity and computational requirements.<
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