Title :
All-purpose quantifiers in an OO language
Author :
Blasband, Darius ; Real, Jean-Christophe
Author_Institution :
Univ. Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Abstract :
The paper describes the introduction of quantifiers in a third generation language (YAFL) in order to reduce the semantic gap between specifications and code. Some extensions of the quantifier´s mechanism beyond the pure mathematical formalism are presented, as well as implementation issues. YAFL has the following properties: it is an object oriented language that advocates strictness; it includes an automatic garbage collector; it generates C as intermediate language; it supports assertions (even if in a limited form); it supports genericity; it supports single inheritance only; it segregates the module structure from the class structure of a project; it segregates between predefined types from user defined classes; and YAFL supports arrays as first class citizen of the language, for the convenience of the ad hoc notation and the resulting performance
Keywords :
formal specification; object-oriented languages; object-oriented programming; OO language; YAFL; ad hoc notation; assertions; automatic garbage collector; class structure; first class citizen; genericity; implementation issues; intermediate language; module structure; object oriented language; predefined types; quantifier mechanism; semantic gap; single inheritance; specifications; strictness; third generation language; user defined classes; Dictionaries; Displays; Jacobian matrices; Mathematical programming; Runtime; System testing;
Conference_Titel :
Technology of Object-Oriented Languages, 1998. TOOLS 27. Proceedings
Conference_Location :
Beijing
Print_ISBN :
0-8186-9096-8
DOI :
10.1109/TOOLS.1998.713582