Mechanical Program Analysis One means of analyzing program performance is by deriving closed-form expressions for their execution behavior. This paper discusses the mechanization of such analysis, and describes a system, Metric, which is able to analyze simple Lisp programs and produce, for example, closed-form expressions for their running time expressed in terms of size of input. This paper presents the reasons for mechanizing program analysis, describes the operation of Metric, explains its implementation, and discusses its limitations. CACM September, 1975 Wegbreit, B. analysis of programs, performance analysis, execution time, execution behavior, difference equations, generating functions, list processing, Lisp, algebraic manipulation, programming languages, analysis of algorithms 3.69 4.22 5.24 5.25 CA750905 JB January 6, 1978 2:11 PM 1024 4 2719 1051 4 2719 1102 4 2719 1132 4 2719 1390 4 2719 1486 4 2719 1549 4 2719 1706 4 2719 1708 4 2719 1781 4 2719 1826 4 2719 1826 4 2719 1860 4 2719 1878 4 2719 378 4 2719 2060 4 2719 2155 4 2719 2156 4 2719 2168 4 2719 2168 4 2719 2164 4 2719 2170 4 2719 2249 4 2719 2314 4 2719 2323 4 2719 2657 4 2719 2719 4 2719 2719 4 2719 2719 4 2719 2719 4 2719 2719 4 2719 2719 4 2719 2719 4 2719 2723 4 2719 2736 4 2719 2833 4 2719 2838 4 2719 2842 4 2719 2855 4 2719 2879 4 2719 2967 4 2719 3077 4 2719 3080 4 2719 3094 4 2719 3106 4 2719 627 4 2719 106 4 2719 210 5 2719 1626 5 2719 2151 5 2719 2167 5 2719 2210 5 2719 2645 5 2719 2657 5 2719 2719 5 2719 2719 5 2719 2719 5 2719