Semantic Subtyping for Objects and Classes

Dardha, O. , Gorla, D. and Varacca, D. (2013) Semantic Subtyping for Objects and Classes. In: Formal Techniques for Distributed Systems - Joint IFIP WG 6.1 International Conference, FMOODS/FORTE 2013, Florence, Italy, 3-5 Jun 2013, pp. 66-82. (doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-38592-6_6)

Abstract

We propose an integration of structural subtyping with boolean connectives and semantic subtyping to define a Java-like programming language that exploits the benefits of both techniques. Semantic subtyping is an approach to defining subtyping relation based on set-theoretic models, rather than syntactic rules. On the one hand, this approach involves some non trivial mathematical machinery in the background. On the other hand, final users of the language need not know this machinery and the resulting subtyping relation is very powerful and intuitive. While semantic subtyping is naturally linked to the structural one, we show how the framework can also accommodate the nominal subtyping. Several examples show the expressivity and the practical advantages of our proposal.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Additional Information: The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38592-6_6
• Keywords: featherweight java, boolean connectives, semantic subtyping, nominal subtyping, structural subtyping
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Dardha, Dr Ornela
• Authors: Dardha, O., Gorla, D., and Varacca, D.
• Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• ISSN: 0302-9743
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2013 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
• First Published: First published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science 7892:66-82
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher