Interobject references in object-oriented programs allow arbitrary aliases between objects. By breaching objects' encapsulation boundaries, these aliases can make programs hard to understand and especially hard to debug. We propose using an explicit, run-time notion of object ownership to control aliases between objects in dynamically typed languages. Dynamically checking object ownership as a program runs ensures the program maintains the encapsulation topology intended by the programmer.
Index Terms:
object-orientation, ownership, aliasing, encapsulation
Citation:
James Noble, David Clarke, John Potter, "Object Ownership for Dynamic Alias Protection," tools, pp.176, 32nd International Conference on Technology of Object-Oriented Languages, 1999