Report Number: CS-TN-96-30
Institution: Stanford University, Department of Computer Science
Title: The Development of Type Systems for Object-Oriented Languages
Author: Fisher, Kathleen
Author: Mitchell, John C.
Date: January 1996
Abstract: This paper, which is partly tutorial in nature, summarizes some basic research goals in the study and development of typed object-oriented programming languages. These include both immediate repairs to problems with existing languages and the long-term development of more flexible and expressive, yet type-safe, approaches to program organization and design. The technical part of the paper is a summary and comparison of three object models from the literature. We conclude by discussing approaches to selected research problems, including changes in the type of a method from super class to sub class and the use of types that give information about the implementations as well as the interfaces of objects. Such implementation types seem essential for adequate typing of binary operations on objects, for example.
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tn/96/30/CS-TN-96-30.pdf