The concept of class invariant in object-oriented programming
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arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2021
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| _version_ | 1866913201103306752 |
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| author | Meyer, Bertrand Arkadova, Alisa Kogtenkov, Alexander |
| author_facet | Meyer, Bertrand Arkadova, Alisa Kogtenkov, Alexander |
| contents | Class invariants -- consistency constraints preserved by every operation on objects of a given type -- are fundamental to building, understanding and verifying object-oriented programs. For verification, however, they raise difficulties, which have not yet received a generally accepted solution. The present work introduces a proof rule meant to address these issues and allow verification tools to benefit from invariants.
It clarifies the notion of invariant and identifies the three associated problems: callbacks, furtive access and reference leak. As an example, the 2016 Ethereum DAO bug, in which $50 million were stolen, resulted from a callback invalidating an invariant. The discussion starts with a simplified model of computation and an associated proof rule, demonstrating its soundness.
It then removes one by one the three simplifying assumptions, each removal raising one of the three issues, and leading to a corresponding adaptation to the proof rule. The final version of the rule can tackle tricky examples, including "challenge problems" listed in the literature. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2109_06557 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The concept of class invariant in object-oriented programming Meyer, Bertrand Arkadova, Alisa Kogtenkov, Alexander Programming Languages Software Engineering D.2.4; F.3.1; D.1.5; D.3.3; F.3.3 Class invariants -- consistency constraints preserved by every operation on objects of a given type -- are fundamental to building, understanding and verifying object-oriented programs. For verification, however, they raise difficulties, which have not yet received a generally accepted solution. The present work introduces a proof rule meant to address these issues and allow verification tools to benefit from invariants. It clarifies the notion of invariant and identifies the three associated problems: callbacks, furtive access and reference leak. As an example, the 2016 Ethereum DAO bug, in which $50 million were stolen, resulted from a callback invalidating an invariant. The discussion starts with a simplified model of computation and an associated proof rule, demonstrating its soundness. It then removes one by one the three simplifying assumptions, each removal raising one of the three issues, and leading to a corresponding adaptation to the proof rule. The final version of the rule can tackle tricky examples, including "challenge problems" listed in the literature. |
| title | The concept of class invariant in object-oriented programming |
| topic | Programming Languages Software Engineering D.2.4; F.3.1; D.1.5; D.3.3; F.3.3 |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.06557 |