6.883 is a graduate paper-reading seminar. As such, each class session begins with a brief presentation followed by a discussion of the assigned reading material, which is listed below. To help in preparing for the discussion, each student is asked to write a one-paragraph commentary on the assigned reading the day before the class meets to discuss it.
Abstract Interpretation
Jones, Neil D., and Flemming Nielson. “Abstract Interpretation: A Semantics-based Tool for Program Analysis.” In Handbook of Logic in Computer Science. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 527-629. ISBN: 019853762X. Read first two sections only.
Cousot, Patrick, and Radhia Cousot. “Abstract Interpretation: A Unified Lattice Model for Static Analysis of Programs by Construction or Approximation of Fixpoints.” POPL (1977): 238-252.
Dynamic Analysis
Ferguson, Roger, and Bogdan Korel. “The Chaining Approach for Software Test Data Generation.” ACM TOSEM 5, no. 1 (1996): 63-86.
Ball, Thomas, and James R. Larus. “Efficient Path Profiling.” MICRO 29 (1996): 46-57.
Zeller, Andreas, and Ralf Hildebrandt. “Simplifying and Isolating Failure-inducing Input.” IEEE TSE 28, no. 2 (2002): 183-200.
Ernst, Michael D., Jake Cockrell, William G. Griswold, and David Notkin. “Dynamically Discovering Likely Program Invariants to Support Program Evolution.” IEEE TSE 27, no. 2 (2001): 1-25. Skim sections 5-8; read the rest more carefully.
Types
Damas, Luis, and Robin Milner. “Principal Type-schemes for Functional Programs.” In Proc. of the 9th ACM Symp. on POPL. Albuquerque, Mexico, 1982, pp. 207-212. ISBN: 0897910656.
Lee, Oukseh, and Kwangkeun Yi. “Proofs about a Folklore Let-polymorphic Type Inference Algorithm.” ACM TOPLAS 20, no. 4 (1998): 707-723.
Reynolds, John C. “Introduction to Part II, Polymorphic Lambda Calculus.” In Logical Foundations of Functional Programming. Edited by Gérard Huet. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1990, pp. 77-86. ISBN: 0201172348.
O’Callahan, Robert, and Daniel Jackson. “Lackwit: A Program Understanding Tool based on Type Inference.” ICSE. Boston, MA: 1997, pp. 338-348. ISBN: 0897919149.
Johnson, Robert T., and David Wagner. “Finding User/Kernel Pointer Bugs with Type Inference.” In Proc. of USENIX Security Symp. 2004, pp. 119-134.
Steensgaard, Bjarne. “Points-to Analysis in Almost Linear Time.” In Proc. of the 23rd ACM Symp. on POPL. St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, 1995, pp. 32-41. ISBN: 0897917693.
———. “Points-to Analysis by Type Inference of Programs with Structures and Unions.” In Proc. of 6th Int. Conf. on Compiler Construction. 1996, pp. 136-150. ISBN: 3540610537. Skim for differing material.
Rayside, Derek. “Points-to Analysis.” (notes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005)
Model Checking
Holzmann, Gerard J. “The Spin Model Checker.” IEEE TSE 23, no. 5 (1997): 279-295.
Chan, William, Richard J. Anderson, Paul Beame, David H. Jones, David Notkin, and William E. Warner. “Optimizing Symbolic Model Checking for Statecharts.” IEEE TSE 27, no. 2 (2001): 170-190.
Corbett, James C. “Constructing Compact Models of Concurrent Java Programs.” ISSTA 23, no. 2 (1998): 1-10.
Visser, William, SeungJoon Park, and John Penix. “Using Predicate Abstraction to Reduce Object-oriented Programs for Model Checking.” In Proc. of the Third Workshop on Formal Methods in Software Practice. Portland, Oregon, 2000, pp. 3-182. ISBN: 158113262X.
