Semantics of Implicit Procedure-Calling Mechanisms

Northeastern University, Boston MA

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal: CCR-0097740 Title: Semantics of Implicit Procedure-Calling Mechanisms PI: Mitchell Wand Modern software architectures display extremely dynamic patterns of procedure invocation, in which it is difficult to determine what procedure is invoked from any call site. These architectures are sometimes called implicit invocation architectures. This project proposes to study two mechanisms for implicit procedure invocation: event-based programming (also known as the Observer pattern), and aspect-oriented programming. It proposes to develop control-flow analyses for these mechanisms, and to consider the correctness of translations between these mechanisms and more traditional models of computation. It also proposes to extend the principal investigator's previous work on contextual equivalence to consider equivalence in contexts limited by architectural constraints.