Foundations of Object-Oriented Languages

Types and Semantics

MIT Press

In recent years, object-oriented programming has emerged as the dominant
computer programming style, and object-oriented languages such as C++ and Java enjoy
wide use in academia and industry. This text explores the formal underpinnings of
object-oriented languages to help the reader understand the fundamental concepts of
these languages and the design decisions behind them.The text begins by analyzing
existing object-oriented languages, paying special attention to their type systems
and impediments to expressiveness. It then examines two key features: subtypes and
subclasses. After a brief introduction to the lambda calculus, it presents a
prototypical object-oriented language, SOOL, with a simple type system similar to
those of class-based object-oriented languages in common use. The text offers proof
that the type system is sound by showing that the semantics preserves typing
information. It concludes with a discussion of desirable features, such as
parametric polymorphism and a MyType construct, that are not yet included in most
statically typed object-oriented languages.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bruce, Kim B.

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Informatik

Über Autor(innen)

Bruce, Kim B.
Kim B. Bruce is Frederick Latimer Wells Professor of Computer Science at Williams
College.