[Soot-list] use Soot to extend our analysis

[Kyle Lahnakoski]

I am very interested in using Soot as a library, unfortunately I have
not had the time to separate the core compiler and optimizer from the
rest of the code. I am *not* interested in the parser, and I expect to
use some sort of intermediate representation (Shimple?) to work with
this core.

Is there high level documentation that describes the various packages
and their general responsibility and use in the great scheme of Soot?

If not, are there other open source programs that use the Soot
compiler/optimizer as an API? I am hoping that their hooks into Soot
provide the information I am looking for, albeit indirectly.

Thanks for you time.


Keith Lea wrote:

>I thought I should reply with details to back up what I said about Soot
>having problems as an application library, instead of apparently blindly
>criticizing it.
>
>My application uses Soot as a library. It's is an IDE plug-in (for
>IntelliJ IDEA) which uses Soot to analyze source code in real time while
>the user is typing. I had (and have) a few problems developing with Soot:
>
>1. Memory problems
>To use Soot, I had to spend a few days profiling to find all of the
>memory leaks. I then had to modify Soot source itself in several places
>to prevent some memory leaks which are otherwise inherent in its design.
>
>I've been told that there's a G.reset() method which resets all of Soot
>and throws away all state. I haven't tried using it, but I suspect it
>has performance problems compared to my approach of only releasing
>memory which is unnecessary, rather than re-initializing all of Soot. It
>might not, however; you should try it.
>
>2. Multithreading issues
>You simply can't use Soot from multiple threads at once. A huge
>modification of Soot would be necessary to change this. Your application
>should probably have a "Soot thread" whose job is to run Soot tasks
>which are enqueued by other parts of your application, and to return
>results to those threads using listeners.
>
>These two problems are the major problems I've had. I suggest using Soot
>in your application but you should be prepared to spend time working
>around these two issues.
>
>-Keith
>  
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Kyle Lahnakoski                                       kyle at arcavia.com
(416) 892-7784                                    Arcavia Software Ltd