Local Hoare reasoning about DOM

The W3C Document Object Model (DOM) specifies an XML update library. DOM is written in English, and is therefore not compositional and not complete. We provide a first step towards a compositional specification of DOM. Unlike DOM, we are able to work with a minimal set of commands and obtain a complete reasoning for straight-line code. Our work transfers O'Hearn, Reynolds and Yang's local Hoare reasoning for analysing heaps to XML, viewing XML as an in-place memory store as does DOM. In particular, we apply recent work by Calcagno, Gardner and Zarfaty on local Hoare reasoning about simple tree update to this real-world DOM application. Our reasoning not only formally specifies a significant subset of DOM Core Level 1, but can also be used to verify, for example, invariant properties of simple Javascript programs. Categories and Subject Descriptors F.3.1 [Specifying and Verifying and Reasoning about Programs]: Logics of programs General Terms Languages, Theory, Verification

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: PODS
• Authors: Philippa Gardner, Gareth Smith, Mark J. Wheelhouse, Uri Zarfaty
• Keywords: Database, DOM Core Level, Local Hoare Reasoning, PODS 2008, Real-world Dom Application