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European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming

ECOOP 1996: ECOOP ’96 — Object-Oriented Programming pp 189–209Cite as

Towards alias-free pointers

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1098))

Abstract

This paper argues that pointer-induced aliasing can be avoided in many cases by means of a concept of unique pointer. The use of such pointers is expected to fortify the concept of encapsulation, to make systems easier to reason about, to provide better control over the interaction between threads, and to make storage management safer and more efficient. We show that unique pointers can be implemented by means of few minor and virtually costless modifications in conventional OO languages, such as Eiffel or C++; and that they can be used conveniently in a broad range of algorithms and data structures.

Work supported by NSF grant No. CCR-9308773.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rutgers University, 08903, New Brusnwick, NJ, USA

    Naftaly H. Minsky

Authors
  1. Naftaly H. Minsky
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Editor information

Pierre Cointe

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Minsky, N.H. (1996). Towards alias-free pointers. In: Cointe, P. (eds) ECOOP ’96 — Object-Oriented Programming. ECOOP 1996. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1098. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0053062

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0053062

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-61439-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-68570-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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