ECOOP 2004 Tutorial
"Design by Contract and Automatic Verification for Java with JML and ESC/Java2"

An ECOOP 2004 Tutorial

Organizers: Joe Kiniry, Erik Poll, and David Cok

Abstract

This tutorial introduces the new ESC/Java version 2 and the JML annotation language.

The Java Modeling Language (JML) is a behavioral interface specification language that can be used to specify the behavior of Java modules. It combines the Design by Contract approach of Eiffel and the model-based specification approach of the Larch family of interface specification languages, with some elements of the refinement calculus. JML has a Java-based syntax and semantics, thus is easy to learn for Java programmers.

ESC/Java2 is a tool that checks that a program is consistent with its annotation. It also detects, at compile time, common programming errors that ordinarily are not detected until run time, and sometimes not even then; for example, null dereference errors, array bounds errors, type cast errors, and race conditions. While ESC/Java uses a theorem prover, it feels to a programmer more like a powerful type checker.

Because JML is familiar to Java programmers, and ESC/Java2 just feels like a typechecker, we believe that they are an excellent way to gently introduce programmers to formal methods.

Attendee Background

Any Java programmer who wishes to improve the quality of their software should attend. Also, educators who want to use JML and ESC/Java2 in teaching, as a gentle way to introduce students to state-of-the-art specification and verification techniques and tools supporting formal methods, should also attend this tutorial.

Objectives

Attendees will come out of this tutorial with a firm understanding of the use of specifications in software design and engineering, a basic knowledge of the JML specification language, and will be knowledgeable about the various tools available for the JML language, particularly ESC/Java2.

Organizer Biographies

  • Joseph Kiniry, University of Nijmegen
    Joe is a Postdoc in the SoS Group at the University of Nijmegen. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the California Institute of Technology. Joe is the coauthor of ESC/Java2.
  • Erik Poll, University of Nijmegen
    Erik is a Lecturer in the SoS Group at the University of Nijmegen. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Eindhoven.
  • David Cok, Eastman Kodak Company
    David is a Director of the Imaging Science Division within Kodak's R&D Laboratories in Rochester, New York. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics at Harvard University. He has participated in and led software development projects for research and commercialization. David is the co-author of ESC/Java2 and an expert on program verification, JML, Java, and related topics.

Registration

The ECOOP early registration deadline is May 7th! Get in early to save on registration fees!

Register for ECOOP via the ECOOP registration page.

Resources

The following resources are available for all interested in JML and ESC/Java, whether you decide to attend our tutorial or not. We will include tutorial material on this web page at a later date.