Software Merge: Models and Methods for Combining Changes to Programs

(Received November 8, 1990, Revised February 25, 1991)We outline a model for programs and data and present a formal definition of an ideal change merging operation. This model is used to develop a new semantically based method for combining changes to programs. We also evaluate the appropriateness of the change merging operation and examine some circumstances where the specifications of a program as well as the implementations can be used to guide the change merging process in cases where the implementations conflict but the specifications do not