Exception Handling and Term Labelling

: We propose a new algebraic framework for exception handling which is powerful enough to cope with many exception handling features such that recovery, implicit propagation of exceptions, etc. This formalism is capable of treating all the exceptional cases, including the following ones: “intrinsic” exceptions which are related to the underlying data structure (for instance, popping an emptstack or applying predecessor on zero for natural numbers), exceptions which are relied on “dynamic” properties (as an acces to a non-initialized array cell) or else exceptions which are due to certain limitations (mainly bounded data structures). We show that within the already existing frameworks, the case of bounded data structures with certain recoveries of exceptional values remains unsolved. First, we justify the usefulness of “labelling” some terms in order to easily specify exceptions without inconsistency, and we then define a general framework of label algebras which allows us ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1993
• Where: TAPSOFT
• Authors: Gilles Bernot, Pascale Le Gall
• Keywords: Data Structures, Exception Handling, Label Algebras, Software Engineering, TAPSOFT 1993