Object-oriented type inference by type binding analysis

So far type information for programs written in untyped object-oriented languages equipped with inheritance, assignments, polymorphic methods, and late binding has been derived by type inference systems. Various approaches already exist. In the present paper we give a completely different approach to compute type information. We develop a so-called type binding analysis operating on abstract values (types), where a type is a finite set of classes. This novel approach, defined in a denotational style and derived from a denotational dynamic semantics, is an alternative for inferring types in respect to the well-known type inference approaches. Type binding analysis as well as type inference do not perform data flow analysis. The type binding analysis leads to acceptance of more programs than the existing type inference systems do. Furthermore the type of information is more precise. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RO 7057(1994,17) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman