Method for determining reachable methods in object-oriented applications that use class libraries

摘要

The present invention analyzes an application A and computes a set reachable methods in A by determining the methods in A that may be called from another reachable method in A, or from within a class library L used by A without analyzing the classes in L.The invention may be used as an optimization to reduce application size by eliminating unreachable methods. In the alternative, the invention may be used as a basis for optimizations that reduce execution time (e.g., by means of call devirtualization), and as a basis for tools for program understanding and debugging.