Control Dependence for Extended Finite State Machines

Abstract. Though there has been nearly three decades of work on program slicing, there has been comparatively little work on slicing for state machines. One of the primary challenges that currently presents a barrier to wider application of state machine slicing is the problem of determining control dependence. We survey existing related definitions, introducing a new definition that subsumes one and extends another. We illustrate that by using this new definition our slices respect Weiser slicing’s termination behaviour. We prove results that clarify the relationships between our definition and older ones, following this up with examples to motivate the need for these differences. Key words: extended finite state machines, reactive systems, control dependence, slicing

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: FASE
• Authors: Kelly Androutsopoulos, David Clark, Mark Harman, Zheng Li, Laurence Tratt
• Keywords: Control Dependence, FASE 2009, Program Slicing, Software Engineering, State Machines