ViDoC- Visual design of optimizing compilers

Designing optimizing compilers is a challenging task that involves numerous mutually interdependent transformations. Often, these interdependencies are only captured in an ad-hoc manner, relying on the ingenuity and experience of the compiler engineers. ViDoC is a tool-kit for the specification-driven, interactive development of program optimizers in a service oriented way. In particular, ViDoC facilitates the specification of dependencies between transformations in terms of modal logic properties and requirements. These specifications can be used for checking, as well as synthesizing, suitable optimization sequences, which are expressed in terms of a workflow (graph) model. ViDoC also offers various kinds of visual support, like the display of flow graphs, call graphs and analysis information, and the visualization and even manipulation of the graphs expressing the optimization workflows. These features make ViDoC especially appropriate for rapid prototyping. ViDoC is constructed on top of the Soot infrastructure project, that targets the manipulation of Java byte code and offers powerful engines for realizing the specified analyzes and transformations. The visualization and workflow handling are designed according to the paradigm of Lightweight Process Coordination, realized in the jABC environment.