Abstractions for Recursive Pointer Data Structures: Improving the Analysis and Transformation of Imperative Programs

Even though impressive progress has been made in the area of optimizing and parallelizing programs with arrays, the application of similar techniques to programs with pointer data structures has remained difficult. In this paper we introduce a new approach that leads to improved analysis and transformation of programs with recursively-defined pointer data structures. We discuss how an abstract data structure description can improve program analysis by presenting an analysis approach that combines an alias analysis technique, path matrix, with information available from an ADDS declaration. Given this improved alias analysis technique, we provide a concrete example of applying a software pipelining transformation to loops involving pointer data structures.