Method and System for presenting and analyzing software source code through intermediate representation

• US 20090178031A1
• Filed: 01/09/2008
• Published: 07/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kan Zhao
• Original Assignee: Kan Zhao
• Inventors: ZHAO, KAN
• Granted Patent: US 8,181,167 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/143
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/427 Parsing

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and system for producing intermediate representation of source code listings with possibly mixed syntaxes to assist software development applications in presenting and analyzing the source code listings through reading the intermediate representation. A source code processor calls Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to preserve source code information, which includes intermediate representation data sets and is preferably stored in a file-based repository. The source code processor is of a compiler, a preprocessor, a parser, or a comment document processor. The data sets capture lexical, syntax and semantic information of source code construct elements, and comprise of location, processor identification, construct category, and attribute data. A software development environment through a source code search engine is able to present source code construct elements, outlines, and symbol references from software packages over a plurality of distributed servers in a network such as the Internet.

Claims

1. A method for producing a source code intermediate representation of source code listings of a source code package, the source code intermediate representation comprising a plurality of intermediate representation data sets, the method comprising:

analyzing a first source code listing of the source code listings using a first source code processor for a first syntax;

gathering source code information for composing an intermediate representation data set for a first construct recognized by said first source code processor, wherein the intermediate representation data set captures data fields comprising a first location of the first construct, a processor identification of said first source code processor, a category for the intermediate representation data set, and an attribute describing the first construct; and

saving the intermediate representation data set into a data storage using a predetermined data format.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing a second source code listing of the source code listings using the first source code processor; and

building a listing identifier mapping table for the first source code listing and the second source code listing.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the first source code listing using a second source code processor for a second syntax; and

building a processor identifier mapping table for the first source code processor and the second source code processor.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

arranging the intermediate representation data set in a listing data set group for the first source code listing; and

arranging the intermediate representation data set in a line data set group for a source code line of the first source code listing, wherein the listing data set group contains the line data set group.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said data storage is a file system and the listing data set group is saved in a predetermined file of said file system, whereby the predetermined file is loaded to memory and updated on demand.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the category is a token of source code and the data attribute comprises characters of the token.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the category is a construct identity of an enclosure construct of the first construct and the attribute comprises a symbol.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the category is a relationship between the first construct and a second construct, and the attribute comprises a second location of the second construct.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the category is a relationship of a symbol reference, the method further comprising:

building a symbol location mapping table for mapping symbol definition locations into symbol identifiers, wherein the intermediate representation data set stores a symbol identifier of a referenced symbol in the attribute.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the category is a construct boundary of an enclosure construct of the first construct and the attribute comprises a type of the construct boundary.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the category is an interpretation of the first construct and the attribute comprises an interpretation value.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the interpretation value is a macro expansion of preprocessing.

13. A method for maintaining a source code package through reading a source code intermediate representation of the source code package, wherein the source code intermediate representation is stored in a first data storage using a predetermined data format and comprises a plurality of intermediate representation data sets for a source code listing, each of the intermediate representation data sets capturing data fields comprising a location of a construct, a processor identification of a source code processor for a syntax, a category for an intermediate representation data set, and an attribute describing the construct, the method comprising:

loading the intermediate representation data sets from the first data storage into a computer system memory; and

obtaining a source code syntax information of the source code listing from the intermediate representation data sets.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the source code intermediate representation further comprising:

a processor identifier mapping table for mapping the source code processor to a processor identifier; and

a listing identifier mapping table for mapping the source code listing to a listing identifier.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

building a symbol search index using said source code syntax information; and

saving the symbol search index into a second data storage; and

deriving HTML tags using said source code syntax information.

16. A method for presenting a source code listing of a source code package through a computer user interface application, the method comprising:

downloading a source code syntax information of the source code listing from a server hosting the source code package;

deriving a first display element for the source code listing using the source code syntax information; and

presenting said first display element through said computer user interface application.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

downloading a source code semantics information of the source code listing from the server;

deriving a second display element for the source code listing using the source code semantics information; and

presenting said second display element through said computer user interface application.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the source code syntax information is described in a source code intermediate representation, the source code intermediate representation comprising:

a plurality of intermediate representation data sets for constructs of the source code listing, each of the intermediate representation data sets capturing data fields comprising a location of a construct, an identification of a source code processor for a syntax, a category for an intermediate representation data set, and an attribute describing the construct;

a processor identifier mapping table for mapping the source code processor to a processor identifier; and

a listing identifier mapping table for mapping the source code listing to a listing identifier.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the source code syntax information describes a construct boundary of a construct and the first display element is an icon indicating the construct boundary.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the source code syntax information describes a category of a token and the first display element is syntax highlighting.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the source code syntax information describes a symbol definition and the first display element is an entry of an outline of the source code listing.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the source code semantics information is a symbol reference and the second display element provides a mouse-clickable link to the symbol reference.

23. A system for maintaining a source code package through reading a source code intermediate representation of the source code package, wherein the source code intermediate representation is stored in a data storage using a predetermined data format and comprises a plurality of intermediate representation data sets for a source code listing, each of the intermediate representation data sets capturing data fields comprising a location of a construct, a processor identification of a source code processor for a syntax, a category for an intermediate representation data set, and an attribute describing the construct, the system comprising:

means for loading the intermediate representation data sets from the data storage into a computer system memory; and

means for obtaining a source code syntax information of the source code listing from the intermediate representation data sets.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising:

a plurality of source code processors for analyzing the source code package to produce the source code intermediate representation, wherein each source code processor analyzes a syntax;

a listing identifier mapping table for assigning a listing identifier for the source code listing; and

a processor identifier mapping table for assigning a processor identifier to said source code processor.

25. The system of claim 23, further comprising:

means for deriving a plurality of display elements for the source code listing using the source code intermediate representation; and

means for presenting display elements to a computer user interface.