An analysis and visualization for revealing object sharing

Sharing mutable data (via aliasing) is a powerful programming technique. To facilitate sharing, object-oriented programming languages permit the programmer to selectively break encapsulation boundaries. However, sharing data makes programs harder to understand and reason about, because, unlike encapsulated data, shared data cannot be reasoned about in a modular fashion. This paper presents an analysis and a visualizer to help the programmer understand and reason about shared data.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: ECLIPSE
• Authors: Derek Rayside, Lucy Mendel, Robert Seater, Daniel Jackson
• Keywords: Data Makes Programs, ECLIPSE 2005, Mutable Data, Powerful Programming Technique, Software Engineering