Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
SpringerLink
Log in

Discovering Algebraic Specifications from Java Classes

  • Conference paper
ECOOP 2003 – Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2003)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2743))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

We present and evaluate an automatic tool for extracting algebraic specifications from Java classes. Our tool maps a Java class to an algebraic signature and then uses the signature to generate a large number of terms. The tool evaluates these terms and based on the results of the evaluation, it proposes equations. Finally, the tool generalizes equations to axioms and eliminates many redundant axioms. Since our tool uses dynamic information, it is not guaranteed to be sound or complete. However, we manually inspected the axioms generated in our experiments and found them all to be correct.

This work is suported by NSF grants CCR-0085792 and CCR-0086255, and an IBM Faculty Partnership Award. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of the sponsors.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Ammons, G., Bodik, R., Larus, J.R.: Mining specifications. In: Proceedings of the 29th ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, pp. 4–16 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Angluin, D.: Inference of reversible languages. Journal of the ACM (JACM) 29(3), 741–765 (1982)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  3. Antoy, S.: Systematic design of algebraic specifications. In: Proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Software Specification and Design, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Antoy, S., Hamlet, D.: Automatically checking an implementation against its formal specification. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 26(1) (January 2000)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Astesiano, E., Kreowski, H.-J., Krieg-Brückner, B. (eds.): Algebraic Foundations of Systems Specification. Springer, Heidelberg (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Bartussek, W., Parnas, D.L.: Using assertions about traces to write abstract specifications for software modules. In: Bracchi, G., Lockemann, P.C. (eds.) ECI 1978. LNCS, vol. 65, Springer, Heidelberg (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Biermann, A.W.: On the inference of turing machines from sample computations. Artificial Intelligence 3, 181–198 (1972)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  8. Biermann, A.W.: The inference of regular Lisp programs from examples. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics 8, 585–600 (1978)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. Biermann, A.W., Krishnaswamy, R.: Constructing programs from example computations. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 2(3), 141–153 (1976)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  10. Boyapati, C., Khurshid, S., Marinov, D.: Korat: Automated testing based on java predicates. In: International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, Rome, Italy (July 2002)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Buy, U., Orso, A., Pezze, M.: Automated testing of classes. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, Portland, Oregon (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Chen, H.Y., Tse, T.H., Chan, F.T., Chen, T.Y. In black and white: An integrated approach to class-level testing of object oriented programs. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering 7(3) (July 1998)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Dodoo, N., Donovan, A., Lin, L., Ernst, M.D.: Selecting predicates for implications in program analysis (March 2002), http://pag.lcs.mit.edu/~mernst/pubs/invariants-implications.pdf

  14. Doong, R., Frankl, P.G.: The ASTOOT approach to testing object-oriented programs. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering 3(2) (April 1994)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ernst, M.D., Cockrell, J., Griswold, W.G., Notkin, D.: Dynamically discovering likely program invariants to support program evolution. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering 27(2), 1–25 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Ernst, M.D., Czeisler, A., Griswold, W.G., Notkin, D.: Quickly detecting relevant program invariants. In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Software Engineering, pp. 449–458 (June 2000)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Ernst, M.D., Griswold, W.G., Kataoka, Y., Notkin, D.: Dynamically discovering program invariants involving collections. TR UW-CSE-99- 11-02, University of Washington (2000) (revised version of March 17, 2000)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Gannon, J., McMullin, P., Hamlet, R.: Databstraction implementation, specification and testing. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems 3(3), 211–223 (1981)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Graves, T.L., Harrold, M.J., Kim, J.-M., Porter, A., Rothermel, G.: An empirical study of regression test selection techniques. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) 10(2), 184–208 (2001)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  20. Gries, D.: The science of programming. Texts and monographs in computer science. Springer, Heidelberg (1981)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  21. Guttag, J.V., Hornig, J.J., Garland, S.J., Jones, K.D., Modet, A., Wing, J.M.: Larch: Languages and Tools for Formal Specification. Springer, Heidelberg (1993) (out of print)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  22. Guttag, J.V., Horning, J.J.: The algebraic specification of abstract data types. Acta Informatica 10, 27–52 (1978)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  23. Hangal, S., Lam, M.S.: Tracking down software bugs using automatic anomaly detection. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering, pp. 291–301 (May 2002)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Harder, M., Morse, B., Ernst, M.D.: Specification coverage as a measure of test suite quality, Septermber 25 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Hardy, S.: Synthesis of Lisp functions from examples. In: Proceedings of the Fourth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 240–245 (1975)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Helm, R., Holland, I.M., Gangopadhyay, D.: Contracts: specifying behavioral compositions in object-oriented systems. In: Proceedings of the European conference on object-oriented programming on Object-oriented programming systems, languages, and applications, pp. 169–180. ACM Press, New York (1990)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  27. Hoare, C.A.R.: An axiomatic basis for computer programming. Communications of the ACM 12(10), 576–580 (1969)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  28. Van Horebeek, I., Lewi, J.: Algebraic specifications in software engineering: an introduction. Springer, Heidelberg (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Hughes, M., Stotts, D.: Daistish: Systematic algebraic testing for OO programs in the presence of side-effects. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Software Testing and Verification, San Diego, California (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Janicki, R., Sekerinski, E.: Foundations of the trace assertion method of module interface specification. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering 27(7) (July 2001)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Jeng, B., Weyuker, E.J.: A simplified domain-testing strategy. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering 3(3), 254–270 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Kataoka, Y., Ernst, M.D., Griswold, W.G., Notkin, D.: Automated support for program refactoring using invariants. In: International Conference on Software Maintenance, Florence, Italy (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Lin, H.: Procedural implementation of algebraic specification. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Martena, V., Orso, A., Pezze, M.: Interclass testing of object oriented software. In: Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Mitchell, J.C.: Foundations of Programming Languages. MIT Press, Cambridge (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Nimmer, J.W., Ernst, M.D.: Automatic generation of program specifications. In: Proceedings of the 2002 International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA), Rome (July 2002)

    Google Scholar 

  37. O’Callahan, R., Jackson, D.: Lackwit: A program understanding tool based on type inference. In: International Conference on Software Engineering, pp. 338–348 (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Rugaber, S., Shikano, T., Kurt Stirewalt, R.E.: Adequate reverse engineering. In: Proceedings of the 16th Annual International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, pp. 232–241 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Sagiv, M., Reps, T., Wilhelm, R.: Parametric shape analysis via 3-valued logic. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems 24(3), 217–298 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Sankar, S.: Run-time consistency checking of algebraic specifications. In: Proceedings of the Symposium on Testing, Analysis, and Verification, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (September 1991)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Sannella, D., Tarlecki, A.: Essential concepts of algebraic specification and program development. Formal Aspects of Computing 9, 229–269 (1997)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  42. Shapiro, E.Y.: Algorithmic Program Debugging. In: ACM Distinguished Dissertation 1982. MIT Press, Cambridge (1982)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Summers, P.D.: A methodology for lisp program construction from examples. Journal of the ACM (JACM) 24(1), 161–175 (1977)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  44. Whaley, J., Martin, M.C., Lam, M.S.: Automatic extraction of object-oriented component interfaces. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium of Software Testing and Analysis (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  45. Woodward, M.R.: Errors in algebraic specifications and an experimental mutation testing tool. IEEE Software Engineering Journal 8(4), 237–245 (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Zhu, H., Hall, P.A.V., May, J.H.R.: Software unit test coverage and adequacy. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR) 29(4), 366–427 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    Johannes Henkel & Amer Diwan

Authors
  1. Johannes Henkel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Amer Diwan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Microsoft Research,  

    Luca Cardelli

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Henkel, J., Diwan, A. (2003). Discovering Algebraic Specifications from Java Classes. In: Cardelli, L. (eds) ECOOP 2003 – Object-Oriented Programming. ECOOP 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2743. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45070-2_19

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45070-2_19

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-40531-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45070-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation