Theoretical Aspects of Object-Oriented Programming: Types, Semantics, and Language Design

This book brings together the most important contributions to its development to date, focusing in particular on how advances in type systems and semantic models can contribute to new language designs.

Although the theory of object-oriented programming languages is far from complete, this book brings together the most important contributions to its development to date, focusing in particular on how advances in type systems and semantic models can contribute to new language designs. The fifteen chapters are divided into five parts: Objects and Subtypes, Type Inference, Coherence, Record Calculi, and Inheritance. The chapters are organized approximately in order of increasing complexity of the programming language constructs they consider - beginning with variations on Pascal- and Algol-like languages, developing the theory of illustrative record object models, and concluding with research directions for building a more comprehensive theory of object-oriented programming languages. Part I discusses the similarities and differences between "objects" and algebraic-style abstract data types, and the fundamental concept of a subtype. Parts II-IV are concerned with the "record model" of object-oriented languages. Specifically, these chapters discuss static and dynamic semantics of languages with simple object models that include a type or class hierarchy but do not explicitly provide what is often called dynamic binding. Part V considers extensions and modifications to record object models, moving closer to the full complexity of practical object-oriented languages.