WJUG September: Eradicating NullPointerExceptions

[John Hurst]

Hello,

I am pleased to announce the Wellington Java User Group meeting for September 2009.

Wednesday September 16: 5:00 for 5:15 - 6:30pm.

On Eradicating the Dreaded NullPointerException

NullPointerExceptions are a blight on Java's landscape. A tool which could automatically eradicate them at compile-time would be most welcome. Such a tool would report a compile-time error if it's possible the target program might throw a NullPointerException. Over the last few years, several researchers --- including myself --- have developed tools which attempt to do just this. Of course, there are limitations to such tools and research is ongoing. In this talk, I will examine the basic issues underlying this problem and, in particular, discuss the approach I am taking.

Speaker

David Pearce graduated from Imperial College London in 2005, and has since taken up a lecturer position at Victoria University of Wellington, NZ. David's thesis was on efficient algorithms for pointer analysis of C, and his techniques have since been incorporated into GCC. His interests are in programming languages, compilers and static analysis. David is particularly interested in tools and languages that eliminate software errors. David has previously interned at Bell Labs, New Jersey, where he worked on compilers for FPGAs; and also at IBM Hursely, UK, where he worked with the AspectJ development team on profiling systems.

Venue

This meeting is hosted by:
School of Engineering and Computer Science, Victoria University of Wellington
Pipitea Campus
Rutherford House
Lecture Theatre 3 (RHLT3)
Corner of Bunny Street and Lambton Quay
Wellington

Sponsors

We will be giving away a product each from JetBrains and ZeroTurnaround.

Please extend an invitation to attend to any interested friends or colleagues.  As usual, there is no cost involved!

Regards

John Hurst