Specifying Java Frameworks Using Abstract Programs
TOOLS '99 Proceedings of the Technology of Object-Oriented Languages and Systems
Runtime verification of .NET contracts
Journal of Systems and Software - Special issue on: Component-based software engineering
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In this paper we propose a novel approach to specification, development, and verification of object-oriented frameworks employing separate interface inheritance and implementation inheritance hierarchies. In particular, we illustrate how our method of framework specification and verification can be used to specify Java Collections Framework, which is a part of the standard Java Development Kit 2.0, and ensure its correctness. We propose to associate with Java interfaces formal descriptions of the behavior that classes implementing these interfaces and their subinterfaces must deliver. Verifying behavioral conformance of classes implementing given interfaces to the specifications integrated with these interfaces allows us to ensure correctness of the system. The characteristic feature of our specification methodology is that the specification language used combines standard executable statements of the Java language with possibly nondeterministic specification statements. A specification of the intended behavior of a particular interface given in this language can serve as a precise documentation guiding implementation development. Since subtyping polymorphism in Java is based on interface inheritance, behavioral conformance of subinterfaces to their superinterfaces is essential for correctness of object substitutability in clients. As we view interfaces augmented with formal specifications as abstract classes, verifying behavioral conformance amounts to proving class refinement between specifications of superinterfaces and subinterfaces. Moreover, the logic framework that we use also allows verification of behavioral conformance between specifications of interfaces and classes implementing these interfaces. The uniform treatment of specifications and implementations and the relationships between them permits verifying correctness of the whole framework and its extensions.