Detection Of Opaque Violations In Erlang Using Static Analysis

Abstract

Erlang is a general-purpose programming language designed at the Ericsson Computer Science Laboratory. Erlang has extensive dynamic libraries in which a plethora of abstract data types are defined. However, programming in Erlang suffers from the lack of opaque types. Opaque types are especially necessary in a production environment since they provide solid contractual guarantees. Due to heavy pattern matching operations though, violations of the structure of abstract data types are a common occurrence. To address this problem we used static type checking analysis to reliably detect and warn about opaque type violations as well as a myriad of other type related errors. We believe that we have in place a system that will prove helpful in the development of new applications as well as in the maintenance and easier extension of existing code.