Origin Tracking in Primitive Recursive Schemes.
Arie van Deursen · Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) · 1994
Algebraic specications of programming languages can be used to generate language-specic programming support tools.Some of these can be obtained in a straightforward way b y executing language specications as term rewriting systems.More advanced tools can be obtained if the term rewriting machinery is extended with origin tracking.Origin tracking is a technique which automatically establishes a relation between subterms of the result value (normal form) and their origins, which are subterms of the initial term.For specications having a syntax-directed nature, as formalized by the class of so-called primitive recursive schemes, high-quality o rigins can be established.The denition, properties, extensions, and implementation of these so-called syntax-directed origins are discussed.