RE: [sarif] Let's talk about nested graphs

["Larry Golding \(Comcast\)" <larrygolding@comcast.net>]

Luke, any thoughts on this?

 

From: sarif@lists.oasis-open.org <sarif@lists.oasis-open.org> On Behalf Of Larry Golding (Comcast)
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2018 2:49 PM
To: Luke Cartey <luke@semmle.com>; sarif@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [sarif] Let's talk about nested graphs

 

I’m curious how nested graphs are used. Here’s what I mean:

 

You saw the proposal for “nested traversals”. If an edge has a nestedGraphTraversalId property, then when the user is about to traverse that edge, the viewer can offer them the choice of diving into or stepping over the nested traversal. (A debugger-like F10/F11 experience would be nice.) And since a traversal is single-entry, single-exit, there’s no ambiguity about how to navigate through the nested traversal.

 

Now let’s do something similar for graphs: insides one of the nodes of the graph for function_a, we nest a reference to the graph for function_b (see below).

 

My question is, who consumes this information? What do they do with it? Is this the right representation for these consumers-who-I-don’t-yet-know-anything-about? Or do they need something different, or richer?

 

My point is that, from the point of view of an end user experience, I have a very concrete understanding of why nested traversals are helpful, and I have no understanding of how nested graphs are helpful.

 

Thanks,

Larry

 

{                 # A result object

  "graphs": [

    {

      "id": "function_a",

      "nodes": [

        {

          "id": "a1",

        },

        {

          "id": "a2",

          "nestedGraphId": "function_b"

        },

        {

          "id": "a3"

        }

      ],

      "edges": [

        ...

      ]

    },

 

    {

      "id": "function_b",

      "nodes": [

        {

          "id": "b1"

        },

        ...

      ]

    }

  ],

  ...

}