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Compositional Reasoning for Pointer Structures

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Mathematics of Program Construction (MPC 2006)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 4014))

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Abstract

This paper studies the compositional definition and behaviour of properties that arise in pointer structures. A pointer structure is represented as a (pointer) graph. A pointer property is a set of pointer structures. A parameterised binary combinator is defined that enables important properties (like acyclicity, canonicity and reachability) to be defined in a compositional manner. The technique of parameterising a combinator derives from the definition of parallel-by-merge in ‘Unifying Theories of Programming’. It is applied here to the study of disjointness combinators that extend the separating conjunction of Separation Logic. A case study is provided to demonstrate how these ideas are used, in the form of rules of Hoare logic, to verify the correctness of an Object-Oriented program.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK

    Yifeng Chen

  2. Oxford University Computing Laboratory, Oxford, OX1 3QD, UK

    J. W. Sanders

Authors
  1. Yifeng Chen
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  2. J. W. Sanders
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cybernetics at Tallinn University of Technology, Akadeemia tee 21, EE-12618, Tallinn, Estonia

    Tarmo Uustalu

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© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Chen, Y., Sanders, J.W. (2006). Compositional Reasoning for Pointer Structures. In: Uustalu, T. (eds) Mathematics of Program Construction. MPC 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4014. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11783596_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11783596_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-35631-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-35632-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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