Abstract
An ongoing research project of the MITRE Corporation is investigating the use of exception handling in large-scale Ada applications. Through manual and static analysis of artifacts, we have identified patterns of use that can lead to defective behavior in the event of an exceptional condition. We classify these patterns as error-prone. As a guide for future developers of Ada applications we describe these error-prone patterns, how such usage can lead to defects, alternative implementation strategies where known, and how static analysis can be effectively used to identify these error-prone patterns.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Arcadia Environment Research Project, May 1988, Ayacc User's Manual, Version 1.0, University of California, Irvine, CA.
Bundy, Gary N. and Diane E. Mularz, January 1993, Error-Prone Exception Handling in Large Ada Systems, MTR 92W0000227, The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA.
Department of Defense, January 1983, Reference Manual for the Ada Programming Language, ANSI/MIL-STD-1815A-1983.
Goodenough, John B., March 1991, “Using Exceptions: Some Design Issues,” Netnews message.
Howell, C. and D. Mularz, June 1991, “Exception Handling in Large Ada Systems,” Proceedings of the Washington Ada Symposium (WAdaS '91), McLean, VA, pp. 90–101.
Howell, C., D. Mularz, and G. Bundy, May 1992, “Exception Handling or ‘When Bad Things Happen to Good Programs',” Tutorial Proceeding of the 14th International Conference on Software Engineering, Melbourne, Australia.
Ichbiah, J. D. et al., June 1979, “Rationale for the Design of the Ada Programming Language,” SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 14, Number 6, Part B.
Mays, R. G. et al., January 1990, “Experiences With Defect Prevention,” IBM Systems Journal, Volume 29, Number 1, pp. 4–32.
Parnas, David L. et al., June 1990, “Evaluation of Safety-Critical Software,” Communications of the ACM, Volume 33, Number 6, pp. 636–648.
Perry, D. E. and W. M. Evangelist, August 1985, “An Empirical Study of Software Interface Faults,” Proceedings of the International Symposium on New Directions in Computing, Trondheim, Norway, pp. 32–38.
Ploedereder, Erhard, February 1992, “Optimizing Compilers,” Presentation given at Washington SIGAda, Crystal City, VA.
Schaefer, Carl and Gary Bundy, “Static Analysis of Exception Handling in Ada,” submitted to Software Practice and Experience, October 1992.
Software Productivity Consortium (SPC), 1991 Ada Quality and Style: Guidelines for Professional Programmers, SPC-91061-N, Version 02.00.02, Herndon, VA.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Bundy, G.N., Mularz, D.E. (1993). Error-prone exception handling in large Ada systems. In: Gauthier, M. (eds) Ada - Europe '93. Ada-Europe 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 688. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-56802-6_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-56802-6_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-56802-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47748-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive