DocumentCode :
823528
Title :
Uncovering hidden contracts: the .NET example
Author :
Arnou, K. ; Meyer, Bertr
Author_Institution :
Swiss Fed. Inst. of Technol., Zurich, Switzerland
Volume :
36
Issue :
11
fYear :
2003
Firstpage :
48
Lastpage :
55
Abstract :
Software contracts take the form of routine preconditions, postconditions, and class invariants written into the program itself. The design by contract methodology uses such contracts for building each software element, an approach that is particularly appropriate for developing safety-critical software and reusable libraries. This methodology is a key design element of some existing libraries, especially the Eiffel Software development environment, which incorporates contract mechanisms in the programming language itself. Because the authors see the contract metaphor as inherent to quality software development, they undertook the work reported in the article as a sanity check to determine whether they see contracts everywhere simply because their development environment makes using them natural or whether contracts are intrinsically present, even when other designers don´t express or even perceive them. They studied classes from the .NET collections library for implicit contracts and assessed improvements that might result from making them explicit.
Keywords :
contracts; programming environments; safety-critical software; software libraries; software quality; software reusability; Eiffel software development environment; NET collections library; class invariants; contract mechanisms; contract metaphor; design by contract; hidden contracts; implicit contracts; libraries; postconditions; programming language; quality software development; reusable libraries; routine preconditions; safety-critical software; software contracts; software element; Application software; Computer bugs; Contracts; Documentation; Robustness; Runtime; Software debugging; Software libraries; Software tools; Testing;
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Computer
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
0018-9162
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/MC.2003.1244535
Filename :
1244535
Link To Document :
بازگشت