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International Conference on Formal Engineering Methods

ICFEM 2009: Formal Methods and Software Engineering pp 347–366Cite as

A Graph-Based Operational Semantics of OO Programs

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 5885))

Abstract

We present a mathematical model of class graphs, object graphs and state graphs which naturally capture the essential oo features. A small-step operational semantics of oo programs is defined in the style of classical structural operational semantics, in which an execution step of a command is defined as a transition from one state graph to another obtained by simple operations on graphs. To validate this semantics, we give it an implementation in Java. This implementation can also be used for simulation and validation of oo programs, with the visualization of state graph transitions during the execution. A distinct feature of this semantics is location or address independent. Properties of objects and oo programs can be described as properties of graphs in terms of relations of navigation paths (or attribute strings).

Supported by the projects HighQSoftD, HTTS and ARV funded by Macao Science and Technology Development Fund; and grants from STCSM No. 08510700300 and CNSF No. 60970031.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China

    Wei Ke

  2. Macao Polytechnic Institute, Macao

    Wei Ke

  3. International Institute for Software Technology, United Nations University, Macao

    Zhiming Liu, Shuling Wang & Liang Zhao

Authors
  1. Wei Ke
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  2. Zhiming Liu
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  3. Shuling Wang
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  4. Liang Zhao
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Coordenadora da Engenharia de Computação, Diretora de Publicações da SBC, Depto. Informática, ontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, ,, R. Marques de Sao Vicente 225 - Prédio do RDC - Sala 416, Rio de Jan,  

    Karin Breitman

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of York, ,, Heslington, YO10 5DD, York, UK,

    Ana Cavalcanti

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Ke, W., Liu, Z., Wang, S., Zhao, L. (2009). A Graph-Based Operational Semantics of OO Programs. In: Breitman, K., Cavalcanti, A. (eds) Formal Methods and Software Engineering. ICFEM 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5885. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10373-5_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10373-5_18

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-10372-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-10373-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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