Changeset 43b6516

Timestamp:

Mar 12, 2026, 11:51:06 AM (86 minutes ago)

Author:

Peter A. Buhr <pabuhr@…>

Branches:

master

Parents:

a783c74

Message:

final pass of abstract

File:

• doc/theses/mike_brooks_MMath/uw-ethesis-frontpgs.tex (modified) (2 diffs)

doc/theses/mike_brooks_MMath/uw-ethesis-frontpgs.tex

@@ -66 +66 @@
 Internal-External Member: \=  \kill % using longest text to define tab length
 External Examiner: \>  Bruce Bruce \\
-\> Professor, Dept. of Philosophy of Zoology, University of Wallamaloo \\
+\> Professor, Dept. of Philosophy of Zoology, University of Waterloo \\
 \end{tabbing}
   \bigskip
@@ -134 +134 @@
 These features are implemented across the \CFA compiler and runtime libraries.
 The results maintain another \CFA goal of offering strong backwards compatibility with C.
-This work leverages preexisting \CFA contributiongs of prior students working on the \CFA project, particularly through novel applications of the compiler's type system.
+To achieve these goals, this work leverages preexisting \CFA contributions by prior students, particularly novel applications of the compiler's type system.
 
 All modern programming languages provide at least these three high-level containers (collections): array, linked-list, and string.
 Often, the array is part of the programming language, while linked lists are built from (recursive) pointer types, and strings from arrays and/or linked lists.
 For all three types, languages and/or their libraries supply varying degrees of high-level mechanisms for manipulating these objects at the bulk and component levels, such as copying, slicing, extracting, and iterating among elements.
-Unfortunately, typical solutions for the these key types in C cause 60\%--70\% of the reported software vulnerabilities involving memory errors; 70\%--80\% of hacker attack-vectors target these types.
-Therefore, hardening these three C types goes a long way to make the majority of C programs safer.
+Unfortunately, typical implementations for the these key types in C cause 60\%--70\% of the reported software vulnerabilities involving memory errors, where 70\%--80\% of hacker attack-vectors target these types.
+Therefore, hardening these three C types and suggesting programers use them as their default types goes a long way to increase memory safety in the majority of C programs.
 
 Specifically, an array utility is provided that tracks length internally, relieving the user of managing explicit length parameters and stopping buffer-overrun errors.
 This feature requires augmenting the \CFA type system, making array length available at compile and runtime.
-A linked-list utility is provided, which obviates many user-managed recursive pointers by catering directly to system-programming uses (intrusive linking, ad-hoc listing) for which a library solution is often dismissed.
-Finally, a string utility is provided with implicit memory management of text in a specialized heap, relieving error-prone buffer management, including overrun, and providing a copy-on-write speed boost.
-For all three utilities, performance is argued to be on-par with, and occasionally surpassing relevant comparators.
+A linked-list utility is provided, which obviates many user-managed recursive pointers while catering directly to system-programming using intrusive linking.
+Finally, a string utility is provided with implicit memory management of text in a specialized heap, removing error-prone buffer management, including overrun, and providing a copy-on-write speed boost.
+For all three utilities, performance is argued to be on-par with, and occasionally surpassing, relevant comparators.
 With the array, this case is made by showing complete erasure down to a naked C array, modulo runtime bound checks, which are removable more often than with Java-style length management.
-With the linked list and string, empirical measures are compared with relevant libraries.
-These utilities offer a system programmer workable alternatives to hand-rolling several common causes of system vulnerabilities, thereby improving \CFA's position as a safety-forward system-programming alternative.
+With the linked list and string, empirical measures are compared with C and \CC comparable libraries.
+These utilities offer programmers workable alternatives to hand-rolling specialized libraries, which is a huge safety benefit, eliminating many system vulnerabilities.
+The results establish \CFA's position as a safety-forward programming alternative.
 
 \cleardoublepage