An object-oriented calculus with term constraints

Abstract

Safety has become a fundamental requirement in all aspects of computer systems. Object-oriented calculi, such as Castagna's λ&-calculus and its variants (Castagna, 1997) ensure type safety in environments based on the distinguished object-oriented paradigm. Although for safety reasons object invariance and operation specifications are getting widely employed in all stages of the engineering process, they are not supported by these calculi. In this paper, a new calculus is presented which supports term (value) constraints besides the key object-oriented mechanisms (class types, inheritance, overloading with multiple dispatch and late binding). We also show how a type with constraints may realise a role, another useful object-oriented modelling element. The soundness of the type system and the confluence of the notion of reduction of the calculus are considered. The contribution also discusses computability issues partially arising from the use of first-order logic to formalise the constraints.