Adaptive Correction of Program Statements.

A method of analyzing statements in a programming language which can tolerate a considerable inaccuracy in their specification is proposed. This method involves principles at present mainly confined to studies in the area of artificial intelligence such as feature extraction, approximate tree matching, and strategy improvement by feedback from the matching process. A pilot program incorporating the principles is described and preliminary operating results are presented. A final section surveys further principles which are currently being investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]