Java Jr.: Fully abstract trace semantics for a core Java language

Abstract

We introduce an expressive yet semantically clean core Java-like language, Java Jr., and provide it with a formal operational semantics based on traces of observable actions which represent interaction across package boundaries. A detailed example based on the Observer Pattern is used to demonstrate the intuitive character of the semantic model. We also show that our semantic trace equivalence is fully-abstract with respect to a natural notion of testing equivalence for object systems. This is the first such result for a full class-based OO-language with inheritance. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.