P. Cousot & R. Cousot, Static determination of dynamic properties of generalized type unions

Patrick Cousot & Radhia Cousot.
Static determination of dynamic properties of generalized type unions.
In Proceedings of an ACM Conference on Language Design for Reliable Software , D. Wortman (Ed.), March 28-30, 1977, Raleigh, NC, USA.
SIGPLAN Notices, Vol. 12, Nb 3, March 1977, pages 77-94;
Operating Systems Review 11(2) April 1977;
Software Engineering Notes 2(2) March 1977;
ACM Press, New York, NY, USA.
PDF (820 K), readable by Acrobate Reader.
Abstract: The classical programming languages such as Pascal or ALGOL 68 do not provide full data type security. Run-time errors are not precluded on basic operations. Type safety necessitates a refinement of the data type notion which allows subtypes. The compiler must also be able to ensure that basic operations are applicable. This verification consists in determining a local subtype of globally declared variables or constants. This may be achieved by improved compiler capabilities to analyze the program properties or by kanguage constructs which permit the expression of these properties. Both approaches are discussed and illustrated by the problem of access to records via pointers, access to variants of record structures, determination of disjoint collections of linked records, and determination of integer subrange. Both approaches are complementar and a balance must be found between what must be specified by the programmer and what must be discovered by the compiler.
Slides of the conference presentation (.pdf.gz, 8 Mb)

Bibliographic reference:

\bibitem{CousotCousot77-2}
P{.} Cousot and R{.} Cousot.
\newblock Static determination of dynamic properties of generalized type
unions.
\newblock In {\em ACM Symposium on Language Design for Reliable Software},
Raleigh, North Calorina, ACM SIGPLAN Notices{} 12(3):77--94, 1977.

@inproceedings{CousotCousot77-2,
author =    {Cousot, P{.} and Cousot, R{.}},
title =     {Static determination of dynamic properties of generalized type
	unions},
booktitle = {ACM Symposium on Language Design for Reliable Software},
address =   {Raleigh, North Calorina, ACM SIGPLAN Notices{} 12(3):77--94},
year =      1977,
}