We propose adding safe, efficient garbage collection to C++, eliminating the possibility of storage-management bugs and making the design of complex, object-oriented systems much easier. This can be accomplished with almost no change to the language itself and only small changes to existing implementations, while retaining compatibility with existing class libraries. Our proposal is the first to take a holistic, system-level approach, integrating four technologies. The language interface specifies how programmers access garbage collection through the language. An optional safe subset of the language automatically enforces the safe-use rules of garbage collection and precludes storage bugs. A variety of collection algorithms are compatible with the language interface, but some are easier to implement and more compatible with existing C++ and C implementations. Finally, codegenerator safety ensures that compilers generate correct code for use with collectors. John R. Ellis and David L. D...

The ability to de ne overloaded operators and generic templated classes in C++, provides a mechanism for the de nition of array classes. We present an array class hierarchy that can be substituted for builtin arrays in a given C program, with minimal changes to the actual code and no change in the run-time semantics of the program. This augments our previous work that developed a class hierarchy for C pointers. The array class hierarchy provides a framework for customising the semantics of array operations and enables, for example, full bounds checking to be performed. By translating the original source code declarations to use the array class, so-called safe arrays can be provided. 1.