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Added void-safe-eiffel.pdf and updated related wiki page.

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documentation/current/eiffel/Technical_papers/void-safety-how-eiffel-removes-null-pointer-dereferencing.wiki
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[[Property:title|Void-safety: how Eiffel removes null-pointer dereferencing]]
[[Property:weight|0]]
[[Property:uuid|d9380464-4312-b76e-9bfd-e57df0f59b4a]]
This white paper (see [[file:void-safe-eiffel.pdf|"Attachment" link ]] below) presents the Eiffel void-safety mechanism, fully implemented in EiffelStudio 6.4.
This white paper (see [[file:void-safe-eiffel.pdf|document as pdf]]) presents the Eiffel void-safety mechanism, fully implemented in EiffelStudio 6.4.
In almost every program running today there is a ticking time bomb: the risk of a "void call". A void call is possible in programs written in almost any programming language; its effect is usually to crash the program. Many unexplained program failures and other abnormal behaviors result from void calls.
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Professor C.A.R. Hoare from Microsoft Research, winner of the Turing Award and the Kyoto Prize, calls the presence of void calls in modern programming languages the "billion-dollar mistake":
<ul>"The invention of the null reference in 1965" [the source of void calls] "has led to innumerable errors, vulnerabilities, and system crashes, which have probably caused a billion dollars of pain and damage in the last forty years."
</ul>
:"The invention of the null reference in 1965" [the source of void calls] "has led to innumerable errors, vulnerabilities, and system crashes, which have probably caused a billion dollars of pain and damage in the last forty years."
(Citation at: http://qconlondon.com/london-2009/presentation/Null+References:+The+Billion+Dollar+Mistake .)
(Citation at: [http://qconlondon.com/london-2009/presentation/Null+References:+The+Billion+Dollar+Mistake] )
The Eiffel solution relies on a combination of language mechanisms:
<ul><li>
"Certified Attachment Patterns" are code schemes that the EiffelStudio compiler guarantees to be void-safe.
*"Certified Attachment Patterns" are code schemes that the EiffelStudio compiler guarantees to be void-safe.
*"Attached types" are types that are guaranteed to have non-void values.
*The "Object Test" instruction lets programmers treat void values in a special way.
<li>"Attached types" are types that are guaranteed to have non-void values.
<li>The "Object Test" instruction lets programmers treat void values in a special way.
</ul>
The White Paper (see the link below) describes the theoretical and practical challenges of ensuring void-safety and presents the Eiffel mechanism.-
The White Paper (see the link below) describes the theoretical and practical challenges of ensuring void-safety and presents the Eiffel mechanism.

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