Abstract

Computer programs are not executed in a vacuum, they are run in diverse environments where the execution context may change a program’s capabilities, behaviour, and results. Notions of context in programming are wide ranging, from user- and application-level notions such as a device’s GPS location or local resources, to low-level programming notions such as binding scopes or data-structure traversals. This talk presents a general program analysis for contextual properties of programs. This analysis can be used to provide information on program requirements, aid program correctness, and guide optimisation. The approach can be specialised to various notions of context: examples involving array traversals and distributed resources will be shown. Research on a general semantics for context-dependence will also be informally described.