Data Groups: Specifying the Modification of Extended State

This paper explores the interpretation of specifications in the context of an object-oriented programming language with subclassing and method overrides. In particular, the paper considers annotations for describing what variables a method may change and the interpretation of these annotations. The paper shows that there is a problem to be solved in the specification of methods whose overrides may modify additional state introduced in subclasses. As a solution to this problem, the paper introduces data groups, which enable modular checking and rather naturally capture a programmer's design decisions.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: OOPSLA
• Authors: K. Rustan M. Leino
• Keywords: Method Overrides, Object-oriented Programming Language, OOPSLA 1998, Paper Considers Annotations, Security Privacy