Error-prone exception handling in large Ada systems

Abstract

An ongoing research project of the MITRE Corporation is investigating the use of exception handling in large-scale Ada applications. Through manual and static analysis of artifacts, we have identified patterns of use that can lead to defective behavior in the event of an exceptional condition. We classify these patterns as error-prone. As a guide for future developers of Ada applications we describe these error-prone patterns, how such usage can lead to defects, alternative implementation strategies where known, and how static analysis can be effectively used to identify these error-prone patterns.