Better Genericity for OO Programs
Speaker: Wei Ngan Chin , Associate Professor, SoC, National University of Singapore
Date: May 27 2005
Time: 2:30PM to 3:30PM
Location: 32-D463 Star
Host: Martin Rinard, MIT-CSAIL
Contact: Mary McDavitt, 617-253-9620, mmcdavit@csail.mit.edu
Relevant URL: Genericity (through types) can support better software reusability and
can capture more precise information for type-safe
programs. Recently, several proposals have advocated for
genericity (based on parametric types) to be added to object-oriented
programs, extending beyond class-based subtyping.
One promising approach is the use of variant (parametric)
types to support covariant and contravariant
subtyping for object fields with certain properties.
Previous approach formalises variant type as a special
case of existential type system. In this paper, we formalise
a new framework based on {\em read-write analysis} to
improve on the specification of variant typing, and
apply it comprehensively to fields, variables and parameters.
Our solution also supports {\em conjunctive type} to provide a
more accurate model for capturing genericity involving multiple
inheritance.
Our framework is modular and easier to analyse. Furthermore,
it integrates fully with class-based subtyping with its
handling of cast operations for (variant)
generic types. Our proposal has been implemented
as a constraint type system for specifying highly reusable OO programs.
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