Aiding Self-motivation with Readings in Introductory Computing

Students can achieve self-motivation and a broader appreciation of computing by reading widely about computing. This paper advocates discussing self-motivation with students, and suggesting that they read widely as a means to that end. A discussion of how to present these ideas effectively, and an annotated list of suggested readings, appropriate for undergraduate majors in computing, are included

JML\u27s Rich, Inherited Specifications for Behavioral Subtypes

The Java Modeling Language (JML) is used to specify detailed designs for Java classes and interfaces. It has a particularly rich set of features for specifying methods. This paper describes those features, with particular emphasis on the features related to specification inheritance. It shows how specification inheritance in JML forces behavioral subtyping, through a discussion of semantics and examples. It also describes a notion of modular reasoning based on static type information, supertype abstraction, which is made valid in JML by methodological restrictions on invariants, history constraints, and initially clauses and by behavioral subtyping

Introduction to the Literature on Semantics

An introduction to the literature on semantics. Included are pointers to the literature on axiomatic semantics, denotational semantics, operational semantics, and type theory

Introduction to the Literature on Programming Language Design

This is an introduction to the literature on programming language design and related topics. It is intended to cite the most important work, and to provide a place for students to start a literature search

An Overview of Larch/C++: Behavioral Specifications for C++ Modules

An overview is presented of the behavioral interface specification language Larch/C++. The features of Larch/C++ used to specify the behavior of C++ functions and classes, including subclasses, are described, with examples. Comparisons are made with other object-oriented specification languages. An innovation in Larch/C++ is the use of examples in function specifications. Copyright (c) Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996. Used by permission. An abbreviated and earlier version of this paper is chapter 8 in the book Specification of Behavioral Semantics in Object-Oriented Information Modeling, edited by Haim Kilov and William Harvey (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996), pages 121-142

Specifying and Verifying Object-Oriented Programs: An Overview of the Problems and a Solution

This paper presents a careful analysis of the problem of reasoning about object-oriented programs. A solution to this problem allows new types to be added to a program without respecifying or reverifying unchanged modules --- if the new types are subtypes of existing types. The key idea is that subtype relationships must satisfy certain semantic constraints based on the types\u27 specified behavior. Thus subtyping is not the same as inheritance of implementations (subclassing). Subtyping aids specification and verification of object-oriented programs by allowing supertypes to stand for their subtypes. This reduces the problem of reasoning about both supertypes and their subtypes to the problems of reasoning about just the supertypes and proving that the subtype relationships satisfy the required constraints

Introduction to the Literature On Programming Language Design

This is an introduction to the literature on programming language design and related topics. It is intended to cite the most important work, and to provide a place for students to start a literature search