Debugging Via Run-Time Type Checking

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9970907 Susan HorwitzJava programmers have the security of knowing that errors like out-of-bounds array indexes or attempts to dereference a null pointer will be detected and reported at runtime. Java also provides security via its strong type system; for example, it is not possible to treat a pointer as if it were an integer or vice versa, and run-time type checks ensure theccorrectness of down-casting. C and C++ programmers count on tools like Purify to help find out-of bounds array accesses and bad pointer dereferences. However, those tools do not provide help with errors that involve bad run-time types. This research involves the design and implementation of a tool to provide new kinds of run-time checks based on type information. The goal of the tool is to help C/C++ programmers find errors in their programs that manifest themselves as bad run-time types, in the same way that Purify helps programmers find errors in their programs that manifest themselves as bad run-time memory accesses.