Verification-centric Development in Java with JML and ESC/Java2

An ETAPS 2008 Tutorial

Date: 30 March 2008
Time: 9:00-18:00

Recall that Daylight Saving Time starts at 19:00 on Saturday 29 March! Don't get embarrased by showing up an hour late to the tutorial!

Organizers: Joe Kiniry, Gary Leavens, Erik Poll, Dan Zimmerman,
and others (to be confirmed: David Cok)

Abstract

This tutorial introduces ESC/Java2 and the JML annotation language via their integrated and interactive use within the Eclipse IDE.

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.

ESC/Java2 and JML have been deeply integrated into the Eclipse development environment, under the auspices of the European Union Framework 6 research program "Mobius". Within this large research project, many tools and technologies have been integrated to construct the Mobius Program Verification Environment (PVE), a customized version of Eclipse. The PVE looks and feels like Eclipse, but has numerous capabilities that helps one focus on program analysis, design, development, testing, verification, and maintenance using hidden, powerful static checkers, theorem provers, and more.

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.

Justification

Applied formal methods, as exemplified by the JML and ESC/Java2 work, are exactly within the purvey of ETAPS, thus this tutorial is of great relevance to ETAPS attendees.

Duration

This tutorial is an all-day tutorial, as this gives the instructors time to demonstrate the tools, interact with attendees, show various user-interfaces and options, etc.

Tutorial History

This tutorial has been presented to over a hundred academics and several hundred undergraduate and postgraduate students over the past several years. The first version of this tutorial was one of the most successful tutorials at ECOOP 2004, thus all course material is available immediately. In particular, extensive slides, homework assignments, and an ongoing book on JML and ESC/Java2 are available. Revised versions of this tutorial have also been given at several other top academic conferences, including ECOOP, ETAPS, FM, and FMCO.

Organizer Biographies

  • Joseph Kiniry, University College Dublin
    Joe is a lecturer in the Deparment of Computer Science at University College Dublin. He was previously in the SoS Group at Radboud University Nijmegen. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the California Institute of Technology. Joe is the coauthor of ESC/Java2.
  • Erik Poll, Radboud University Nijmegen
    Erik is a Lecturer in the SoS Group at Radboud University 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.
  • Dan Zimmerman, University of Washington, Tacoma
    As inventor of the Dynamic UNITY formalism, Daniel M. Zimmerman received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the California Institute of Technology for his work in formal methods for distributed systems design and development in 2002. Dan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, Tacoma.

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.