Automatic verification of Java design patterns

Design patterns are widely used by object oriented designers and developers for building complex systems in object oriented programming languages such as Java. However, systems evolve over time, increasing the chance that the pattern in its original form will be broken. We attempt to show that many design patterns (implemented in Java) can be verified automatically. Patterns are defined in terms of variants, mini-patterns, and artifacts in a pattern description language called SPINE. These specifications are then processed by Hedgehog, an automated proof tool that attempts to prove that Java source code meets these specifications.