Turing machine approach to runtime software adaptation

Abstract

In this paper, the problem of applying changes to software at runtime is considered. The computability theory is used in order to develop a more general and programming-language-independent model of computation with support for runtime changes. Various types of runtime changes were defined in terms of computable functions and Turing machines. The properties of such functions and machines were used to prove that arbitrary runtime changes on Turing machines are impossible in general cases. A method of Turing machine decomposition into subtasks was presented and runtime changes were defined through transformations of the subtask graph. Requirements for the possible changes were considered with regard to the possibility of subtask execution during such changes. Finally, a runtime change model of computation was defined by extension of the Universal Turing Machine.