Re: [abc] OOPSLA paper

Quoting "Prof. Laurie HENDREN" <hendren@cs.mcgill.ca>:

> Just before section 2.1 -
> Some how I think we should emphasize more the fact that the sym declarations
> are defining the alphabet on which traces will filtered, and then the
> pattern is matched on this filtered trace. I know that this is explained,
> but it sort of comes at the end of the description. It seems to me, by

It is explained right after the TraceGen example, where we call the symbols
"events of interest" and then elaborated upon just before 2.1. It is not clear
to me how it could be emphasized more.

> g at examples later on, that when designing a tracematch, it is
> really important to decide on which symbols to filter on, because this
> impacts which traces are actually matched. Thus, I think it is reasonable
> to describe a tracematch as first definining the set of symbols of interest,
> which provided the filtered trace, and then definining the reg expr on
> this filtered trace.

Right. We don't really talk much about how one goes about designing a
tracematch. Perhaps some of the example descriptions could emphasize it more.

> Why do we use "==" instead of some more abstract equals for checking for
> consistent variable bindings?
>
> This surfaces again in Section 3.4. It seems the explanation is here -
> should there be a forward pointer to it from section 2.1? In the

As Oege said, all design choices are argued for in section 3. Section 2 is
merely descriptive.

> explanation,
> I don't understand the last sentence. Do you mean that one should bind
> to different variables, and then use equals on those variables?

Yes. I will extend the explanation.

> In Section 5 it states the "tracematches cannot bind values of primitive
> types". I think this is the first place I have seen this restriction.
> In section 3.4 you talk about testing equality of primitive types, so
> it would seem that primitive values are allowed - what am I missing?

When 3.4 was written, we had not yet decided whether to include primitive
values. I will update it.

/Aske
Received on Tue Aug 2 13:12:44 2005