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Proving Pointer Program Properties Part 2: The Overall Object Structure Bertrand Meyer, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

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Abstract

The run-time object structure of object-oriented programs typically relies on extensive use of references (or pointers). This second part of a general mathematical framework for reasoning about references handles the overall properties of the structure, not distinguishing between individual links but only considering whether any reference exists between two objects. It provides a basis for dealing with memory management and especially garbage collection.

This is part of a series of 3 articles. Part 1 was published in the March-April 2003 issue of JOT, part 3 will be published in the July-August issue.



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About the author

Bertrand Meyer is Professor of Software Engineering at ETH Zürich and scientific advisor of Eiffel Software (Santa Barbara).