Specifications as search keys for software libraries : a case study using Lambda Prolog

Abstract: "Searching through a large repository of objects can be a tedious activity if a user cannot easily identify the object of interest. In the context of software development, we describe a method of searching through program libraries using specification matching. We use signature information along with pre- and post-condition specifications as search keys to increase the recall and precision of a query. This paper details a case study of specification matching where we use Lambda Prolog as our specification and query language and higher-order unification to retrieve from a library of ML functions. We discuss the significance of specification matching in general and point out some open issues."