Using Algorithmic Complexity Metrics for Process-Oriented Specifications

In industrial automation software development, software cost, complexity and functionality play a key role. The purpose of this paper is to consider the problem of algorithmic complexity assessment in the context of process-oriented programming languages. Metrics and algorithms for assessing algorithmic complexity are well developed for general-purpose languages, but they are not entirely suitable for control programs that are written in specialized problem-oriented languages, like poST. Therefore, maintainability and readability of programs is one of the main parameters used in assessing the safety of process control programs, and in this regard, the task of developing and implementing static analysis tools for such languages is relevant. The paper focuses on the development and implementation of effective methods and tools for static analysis of programs written in the poST language. The paper leverages the process of code analysis and optimization. Section I serves as an introduction to the subject area. Section II overviews the existing approaches for algorithmic analysis of source code and introduces the process-oriented paradigm. Section III describes the proposed methods for complexity analysis. Section IV describes the implementation of the proposed approach in the form of an Eclipse based IDE. Section V presents the results of case studies.