SCREEN ORIENTED DATA FLOW ANALYSIS

• US 20150121349A1
• Filed: 10/28/2013
• Published: 04/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Abadi, Aharon, Abadi, Moria, Ben-Harrush, Idan
• Granted Patent: US 9,710,264 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/132
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/433 Dependency analysis; Data or control flow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/75 Structural analysis for program understanding

Abstract

A method for performing data flow analysis of computer code, comprising: providing computer code of a computer program having a plurality of user interface screens; dividing the computer code to a plurality of portions such that each one of the portions includes code for inducing at least one of loading and using one of the user interface screens; performing a variable usage analysis to detect which variables are at least one of calculated and used in each one of the portions; constructing a data dependence model defining dependencies among the portions based on the variable usage analysis; and identifying, for at least one of the portions and using the data dependence model, at least one unnecessary variable loaded in one of the user interface screens and not used in a respective portion and in a group of portions depending on the respective portion.

Claims

1. A method for performing data flow analysis of computer code, comprising:

providing computer code of a computer program having a plurality of user interface screens;

dividing said computer code to a plurality of portions such that each one of said plurality of portions includes code for inducing at least one of loading and using one of said plurality of user interface screens;

performing a variable usage analysis to detect which variables are at least one of calculated and used in each one of said plurality of portions;

constructing a data dependence model defining dependencies among said plurality of portions based on said variable usage analysis; and

identifying, for at least one of said plurality of portions and using said data dependence model, at least one unnecessary variable loaded in one of said plurality of user interface screens and not used in a respective said portion and in a group of portions depending on said respective portion.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

removing said at least one unnecessary variable from said computer code.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one unnecessary variable is obtained by access to a remote server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said computer program is a mobile application and each one of said plurality of portions user interface screens is separately presented on a display of a mobile device that runs said mobile application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said identifying is performed using adjusted data-flow equations.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said identifying is performed using program slicing method.

7. A computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions adapted to perform the method of claim 1.

8. A system for performing data flow analysis of computer code, comprising:

a slicing module which divides a computer code of a computer program, having a plurality of user interface screens, to a plurality of portions such that each one of said plurality of portions includes code for inducing at least one of loading and using one of said plurality of user interface screens;

a variable usage module which performs analysis to detect which variables are at least one of calculated and used in each one of said plurality of portions

a representation module which constructs a data dependence model among said plurality of portions based on said variables; and

an analysis module which identifies, using said data dependence model, for at least one of said plurality of portions, at least one unnecessary variable loaded in one of said plurality of user interface screens and not used in a respective said portion and in a group of portions depending on said respective portion.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

an optimization module for removing said at least one unnecessary variable from said computer code according to said analysis.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein said at least one unnecessary variable is obtained by access to a remote server.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein said computer program is a mobile application and each one of said plurality of portions user interface screens is separately presented on a display of a mobile device that runs said mobile application.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein said analysis module uses adjusted data-flow equations.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein said analysis module uses program slicing method.

14. A computer program product for performing data flow analysis of computer code, comprising:

a computer readable storage medium;

first program instructions to divide a computer code of a computer program having a plurality of user interface screens to a plurality of portions such that each one of said plurality of portions includes code for inducing at least one of loading and using one of said plurality of user interface screens;

second program instructions to perform a variable usage analysis to detect which variables are at least one of calculated and used in each one of said plurality of portions;

third program instructions to construct a data dependence model defining dependencies among said plurality of portions based on said variable usage analysis; and

fourth program instructions to identify, for at least one of said plurality of portions and using said data dependence model, at least one unnecessary variable loaded in one of said plurality of user interface screens and not used in a respective said portion and in a group of portions depending on said respective portion;

wherein said first, second, and third program instructions are stored on said computer readable storage medium.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising:

fifth program instructions to removing said at least one unnecessary variable from said computer code according to said analysis.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein said at least one unnecessary variable is obtained by access to a remote server.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein said computer program is a mobile application and each one of said plurality of portions user interface screens is separately presented on a display of a mobile device that runs said mobile application.

18. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein said identifying is performed using adjusted data-flow equations.

19. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein said identifying is performed using program slicing method.

20. A computer readable medium comprising the computer program product of claim 14.