Lesson plan

ESC/Java

ESC/Java (and more recently ESC/Java2), the "Extended Static Checker for Java," is a programming tool that attempts to find common run-time errors in Java programs at compile time. The underlying approach used in ESC/Java is referred to as extended static checking, which is a collective name referring to a range of techniques for statically checking the correctness of various program constraints. For example, that an integer variable is greater-than-zero, or lies between the bounds of an array. This technique was pioneered in ESC/Java (and its predecessor, ESC/Modula-3) and can be thought of as an extended form of type checking. Extended static checking usually involves the use of an automated theorem prover and, in ESC/Java, the Simplify theorem prover was used. ESC/Java is neither sound nor complete. This was intentional and aims to reduce the number of errors and/or warnings reported to the programmer, in order to make the tool more useful in practice. However, it does mean that: firstly, there are programs that ESC/Java will erroneously consider to be incorrect (known as false-positives); secondly, there are incorrect programs it will consider to be correct (known as false-negatives). Examples in the latter category include errors arising from modular arithmetic and/or multithreading. ESC/Java was originally developed at the Compaq Systems Research Center (SRC).…

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Article summary

ESC/Java (and more recently ESC/Java2), the "Extended Static Checker for Java," is a programming tool that attempts to find common run-time errors in Java programs at compile time. The underlying approach used in ESC/Java is referred to as extended static checking, which is a collective name referring to a range of techniques for statically checking the correctness of various program constraints. For example, that an integer variable is greater-than-zero, or lies between the bounds of an array. This technique was pioneered in ESC/Java (and its predecessor, ESC/Modula-3) and can be thought of as an extended form of type checking. Extended static checking usually involves the use of an automated theorem prover and, in ESC/Java, the Simplify theorem prover was used. ESC/Java is neither sound nor complete. This was intentional and aims to reduce the number of errors and/or warnings reported to the programmer, in order to make the tool more useful in practice. However, it does mean that: firstly, there are programs that ESC/Java will erroneously consider to be incorrect (known as false-positives); secondly, there are incorrect programs it will consider to be correct (known as false-negatives). Examples in the latter category include errors arising from modular arithmetic and/or multithreading. ESC/Java was originally developed at the Compaq Systems Research Center (SRC).…

Key claims

  1. release date: 2004 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. The record states that the release date is "2004". What evidence would count against this claim?
  3. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  4. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

  1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1314788198

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.