Whiley Update
Whiley is a new programming language being developed at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (see http://whiley.org). Whiley is designed specifically to allow detailed invariants over program code to be written and then checked automatically. These invariants are logical conditions (similar to assertions) which are expressed over data structures, or in the form of pre- and post-conditions. The key difference from runtime assertions, however, is that invariants in Whiley are checked at compile-time --- meaning failures are found much earlier in the development cycle.
Despite being a primarily functional language, Whiley retains a distinctly imperative syntax with the look and feel of a dynamic language (i.e. Python). Whiley currently compiles to the JVM and is fully inter-operable with Java. The Whiley project has been running since 2009 and, in this talk, I will discuss its current status and reflect on lessons learned managing a large open-source code base.
Speaker: David Pearce
David (@whileydave) graduated with a PhD from Imperial College London in 2005, and took up a lecturer position at Victoria University of Wellington, NZ. David's PhD thesis was on efficient algorithms for pointer analysis of C, and his techniques have since been incorporated into GCC. His interests are in programming languages, compilers and static analysis.
Since 2009, he has been developing the Whiley Programming Language (whiley.org) which is designed specifically to simplify program verification. Prior to that, David developed the Java Compiler Kit (JKit), which is an open source Java Compiler aimed at simplifying static analysis.
David has previously interned at Bell Labs, New Jersey, where he worked on compilers for FPGAs; and also at IBM Hursely, UK, where he worked with the AspectJ development team on profiling systems.
You find out more about David's work on his personal homepage: http://www.ecs.vuw.ac.nz/~djp/
When
Wednesday, June 11: 5:00 for 5:15 - 6:30pm
Where
This meeting is hosted by:
NEC
Level 6
NEC House
corner Taranaki and Manners Streets
Wellington
The Java User Group thanks our host!