Improving search times when resolving external symbols in the Timeliner System

Abstract

The Timeliner System, developed at The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, is a tool to automate operational procedures. Using the Timeliner language, a user can easily write scripts which control complex systems. In compiling these scripts into executable data files that can then be executed by the Timeliner executor, the Timeliner compiler resolves external symbols using information stored in a target system description database (GDB). This resolution effectively binds the external symbols to commands and objects of the target system. The GDB was implemented as a group of binary trees. However, search times to resolve external symbols in the trees do not scale well as the number of symbols increases. By replacing the binary trees with hash tables, time to resolve symbols is significantly reduced.