Location

Abstract

As software becomes more complex, we become more reliant on module interfaces. An application may import and combine modules from multiple sources, including sources from outside the company. The module developers must be able to maintain and improve those modules without inadvertently stepping on the behavior of modules over which they cannot have knowledge of. The application developer needs to be notified if any module changes would break the application. This talk covers function hijacking, where adding innocent and reasonable declarations in a module can wreak arbitrary havoc on an application program in C++ and Java. We’ll then look at how modest language design changes can largely eliminate the problem in the D programming language.

Bio

Walter Bright’s first major program was the groundbreaking wargame Empire. He then became interested in compilers and computer languages. He’s written compilers for ABEL, Pascal, C, C++, Java, Javascript, and now D. His extensive experience writing C++ compilers and well over a decade being on the front lines of doing C++ customer support is an ideal background for improving on the language.

Resources

Download the slides from the presentation.