Seminars & Events

Mathematics and Computer Science Division
"Interface Contracts for Scientific Components and Libraries"

DATE: October 22, 2008
TIME: 2:00pm
SPEAKER: Tamara Dahlgren, Computer Scientist
LOCATION: 221, Conference Room A216, Argonne National Laboratory
HOST: Lois Curfman McInnes/Boyana Norris

Description:
This talk describes interface contract specification and enforcement features added to the Babel middleware toolkit for scientific software. Results from early impact studies are also summarized. Runtime contract enforcement is a mechanism for improving software quality – primarily through enhanced testing and debugging – but its use in scientific computing has been limited. Contract support through Babel enables enforcement for components and libraries implemented in C, C++, FORTRAN 77, Fortran 90, Java, and Python. Contracts make obligations on the caller and implementation explicit. When specified for components intended for a plug-and-play environment, executable interface contracts can be used to ensure consistent behavior of different implementations.

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