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Hygienic methods - Introducing HygJava Jaroslaw D. M. Kusmierek, Institute of Informatics, Warsaw University Viviana Bono, Dept. of Computer Science, Torino University

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Abstract

One of the base concepts of object-oriented programming is that of "method". In languages supporting inheritance, this concept is realized by three different actions: (i) the introduction of a new method; (ii) the implementation/override of an existing method; (iii) the method call.
The bindings between (ii) and (i), and between (iii) and (i) are typically based on method names, which are not guaranteed to be unique, thus such bindings might cause some ambiguities. As a result, modifications of existing code may cause errors in some other parts of the code, especially in programs written by third party developers; overall, a programmer cannot predict the moment in the execution when such ambiguities will arise.
In this paper, we describe the nature of these problems and propose a general mechanism to overcome ambiguities in a safe, straightforward, and flexible way. To study the details of this mechanism, and make the reader more familiar with it, we show how to apply this mechanism to Java, and also to a mixin-oriented language called MixedJava.

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About the authors

		Jaroslaw Dominik Mateusz Kusmierek is a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Warsaw, Poland. His main research interests are the base concepts and the design of object oriented languages, and the component oriented approach to software development. He can be reached at jdk@duch.mimuw.edu.pl.
		Viviana Bono is an Associate Professor in Computer Science at the University of Torino, Italy. Her main research interests are theoretical foundations, semantics, and design of object-oriented and functional languages. She can be reached at bono@di.unito.it and at http://www.di.unito.it/~bono.