[PRL] Practise talk Monday 26 10am 366 WVH

[Therapon Skotiniotis]

All, 

 I'll be giving a practise talk (aka Torture Chamber Session) on
 Monday 26, 10:00am in 366 WVH in preparation for ECOOP. 

 You are all invited. 


 Title: "Demeter Interfaces: Adaptive programming without surprises"
 Date: Monday, June 26th, 10:00am
 Place: 366 WVH

 Abstract: 

  Adaptive Programming (AP) provides advanced modularization mechanisms
  for traversal related concerns over data structures in object-oriented
  programs. Computation along a traversal is defined through specialized
  visitors while the traversal itself is separately defined against a
  graph-based model of the underlying data structure with the ability
  to abstract over graph node names and edges. As such, modifying, under
  certain restrictions, the program's data structure does not alter the
  program's overall behavior. Even though AP is geared towards more easily
  evolvable systems, certain limitations of current AP tools hamper code
  reuse and system evolvability. Reasoning about adaptive code becomes
  difficult since there is no guarantee that a modification to a data
  structure will not alter the meaning of the program. Furthermore,
  adaptive programs are defined directly against a program's complete
  underlying data structure exposing unrelated information and introducing
  hardcoded dependencies decreasing reusability, modularity and hampering
  evolution.

  In this paper we present Demeter Interfaces through which
  a more thorough design method of adaptive programs allows for more
  resilient software.  Traversal specifications and Visitors are defined
  against an interface class graph augmented with additional constraints
  that capture structural properties that must hold in order for the
  adaptive code to function correctly. A program implements a Demeter
  interface by providing a mapping between the program's concrete data
  structure and the interface class graph. We show how Demeter interfaces
  allow for higher levels of reusability and modularity of adaptive code
  while the static verification of constraints guards against behavior
  altering modifications. 

 -- Theo