Learning units-of-measure from scientific code

Abstract

CamFort is our multi-purpose tool for lightweight analysis and verification of scientific Fortran code. One core feature provides units-of-measure verification (dimensional analysis) of programs, where users partially annotate programs with units-of-measure from which our tool checks consistency and infers any missing specifications. However, many users find it onerous to provide units-of-measure information for existing code, even in part. We have noted however that there are often many common patterns and clues about the intended units-of-measure contained within variable names, comments, and surrounding code context. In this work-in-progress paper, we describe how we are adapting our approach, leveraging machine-learning techniques to reconstruct units-of-measure information automatically thus saving programmer effort and increasing the likelihood of adoption.