Abstract
Object invariants are used to specify valid object states. They play a central role for reasoning about the correctness of object-oriented software. Current verification methodologies require additional specifications to support the flexibility of modern object oriented programming concepts. This increases the specification effort and represents a new source of error. The presented methodology reduces the currently required specification overhead. It is based on an automatic control flow analysis between code positions violating invariants and code positions requiring their validity. This analysis helps to prevent specification errors, possible in other approaches. Furthermore, the presented methodology distinguishes between valid and invalid invariants within one object. This allows a (more) flexible definition of invariants.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Summers, A.J., Drossopoulou, S., Müller, P.: The need for flexible object invariants. In: International Workshop on Aliasing, Confinement and Ownership in Object-Oriented Programming, pp. 1–9. ACM (2009)
Leino, K.R.M., Müller, P.: Object invariants in dynamic contexts. In: Odersky, M. (ed.) ECOOP 2004. LNCS, vol. 3086, pp. 491–515. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Barnett, M., Fähndrich, M., Müller, P., Leino, K.R.M., Schulte, W., Venter, H.: Specification and verification: The spec# experience (2009)
Hoare, C.A.R.: An axiomatic basis for computer programming. Communications of the ACM 12(10), 576–580 (1969)
Müller, P., Poetzsch-Heffter, A., Leavens, G.T.: Modular invariants for layered object structures. Sci. Comput. Program. 62(3), 253–286 (2006)
Meyer, B.: Eiffel: The Language. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River (1992)
Leavens, G.T., Baker, A.L., Ruby, C.: Jml: a java modeling language. In: Formal Underpinnings of Java Workshop, at OOPSLA 1998 (1998)
Huizing, K., Kuiper, R.: Verification of object oriented programs using class invariants. In: Maibaum, T. (ed.) FASE 2000. LNCS, vol. 1783, pp. 208–221. Springer, Heidelberg (2000)
Dietl, W., Müller, P.: Object ownership in program verification. In: Clarke, D., Noble, J., Wrigstad, T. (eds.) Aliasing in Object-Oriented Programming. LNCS, vol. 7850, pp. 289–318. Springer, Heidelberg (2013)
Müller, P.: Modular Specification and Verification of Object-Oriented Programs. LNCS, vol. 2262. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)
Müller, P.: Reasoning about object structures using ownership. In: Meyer, B., Woodcock, J. (eds.) Verified Software. LNCS, vol. 4171, pp. 93–104. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)
Barnett, M., Naumann, D.A.: Friends need a bit more: Maintaining invariants over shared state. In: Kozen, D. (ed.) MPC 2004. LNCS, vol. 3125, pp. 54–84. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Lu, Y., Potter, J., Xue, J.: Validity invariants and effects. In: Ernst, E. (ed.) ECOOP 2007. LNCS, vol. 4609, pp. 202–226. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Barnett, M., DeLine, R., Fähndrich, M., Leino, K.R.M., Schulte, W.: Verification of object-oriented programs with invariants. Journal of Object Technology 3, 2004 (2004)
Leavens, G.T., Muller, P.: Information hiding and visibility in interface specifications. In: Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE 2007, pp. 385–395. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Huster, S. et al. (2014). More Flexible Object Invariants with Less Specification Overhead. In: Giannakopoulou, D., Salaün, G. (eds) Software Engineering and Formal Methods. SEFM 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8702. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10431-7_25
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10431-7_25
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-10430-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-10431-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)