APLA-Delphi Automatic Program Transformation System With Generic Programming Surpported

Formal development of correct and efficient algorithmic programs is at the heart of the research in the field of the formal method. PAR is a practical environment for formal development of algorithmic programs, which is proposed by Professor Xue. It is based on the research of the projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. We defined Radl for describing algorithm specifications and abstract algorithms, Apla for describing abstract programs. The Radl algorithms can be translated to Apla programs, then to executable language programs such as Delphi, mechanically. In this way, we can formally derive and prove the algorithms. The research of this paper is to provide a practical tool to support the automatic transformation from Apla programs to executable Delphi programs.Apla embodies the thinking of data abstraction, procedure abstraction. There are some core questions in the translator. First, in Apla, tree, graph, set, list are pre-declared while in Delphi they are not. Second, there are obvious mechanisms for generic programming in Apla while Delphi doesn't have them. We developed a set of classes and found a way to use generic programming in Delphi, from which we induced and synthesized the rules between Apla and Delphi. According to the rules, we designed and implemented a system which can transform Apla programs to Delphi programs, supported by generic programming. The system is like a compiler. It is achieved on PC by Visual C++. It consists of two parts, one is the translator and the other comprises the self-defined classes. Using the system, we can mechanically get an executable Delphi program from an Apla program. Our system proved satisfactory with quicksort, cube, longest platform, and so on.We hope to improve Apla~Delphi Program Auto-transformation System, and its reliability, write more Apla example and apply for patent.