Unreachable procedures in object-oriented programming

Abstract

Unreachable procedures are procedures that can never be invoked. Their existence may adversely affect the performance of a program. Unfortunately, their detection requires the entire program to be present. Using a long-time code modification system, we analyze large, linked, program modules of C++, C, and Fortran. We find that C++ programs using object-oriented programming style contain a large fraction of unreachable procedure code. In contrast, C and Fortran programs have a low and essentially constant fraction of unreachable code. In this article, we present our analysis of C++, C, and Fortran programs, and we discuss how object-oriented programming style generates unreachable procedures.