Assertion techniques for dynamic monitoring of linear list data structures

In this paper the use of dynamic monitoring in the area of software development is discussed, with particular emphasis on its relation to software maintenance. New techniques that enable monitoring of most array-implemented linear list data structures are presented. The main advantage of these assertion techniques is the ability to construct a loop around a group of simple assertions. With this concept, the programmer can explicitly define the record traversal scheme for a linear list data structure implemented with either sequential or linked-list record allocation. A number of examples are given to illustrate how these techniques may be used with both sequential and linked representations of various linear list data structures in typical high-level languages, such as jovial. Finally, the practicality of the techniques, together with some performance figures and a description of the jovial implementation, are discussed.