research-article

TeJaS: retrofitting type systems for JavaScript

Authors:

Benjamin S. Lerner,

Joe Gibbs Politz,

Shriram KrishnamurthiAuthors Info & Claims

DLS '13: Proceedings of the 9th symposium on Dynamic languages

Pages 1 - 16

https://doi.org/10.1145/2508168.2508170

Published: 28 October 2013 Publication History

Abstract

JavaScript programs vary widely in functionality, complexity, and use, and analyses of these programs must accommodate such variations. Type-based analyses are typically the simplest such analyses, but due to the language's subtle idioms and many application-specific needs---such as ensuring general-purpose type correctness, security properties, or proper library usage---we have found that a single type system does not suffice for all purposes. However, these varied uses still share many reusable common elements.

In this paper we present TeJaS, a framework for building type systems for JavaScript. TeJaS has been engineered modularly to encourage experimentation. Its initial type environment is reified, to admit easy modeling of the various execution contexts of JavaScript programs, and its type language and typing rules are extensible, to enable variations of the type system to be constructed easily.

The paper presents the base TeJaS type system, which performs traditional type-checking for JavaScript. Because JavaScript demands complex types, we explain several design decisions to improve user ergonomics. We then describe TeJaS's modular structure, and illustrate it by reconstructing the essence of a very different type system for JavaScript. Systems built from TeJaS have been applied to several real-world, third-party JavaScript programs.

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Cited By

Troppmann DFass AStaicu CFilkov VRay BZhou M(2024)Typed and Confused: Studying the Unexpected Dangers of Gradual TypingProceedings of the 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering10.1145/3691620.3695549(1858-1870)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3691620.3695549
Wang PBangert JKern C(2021)If It’s Not Secure, It Should Not Compile: Preventing DOM-Based XSS in Large-Scale Web Development with API Hardening2021 IEEE/ACM 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE)10.1109/ICSE43902.2021.00123(1360-1372)Online publication date: May-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE43902.2021.00123
Serrano M(2020)JavaScript AOT compilationACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3393673.327695053:8(50-63)Online publication date: 6-Apr-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3393673.3276950
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

TeJaS: retrofitting type systems for JavaScript
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Formal language definitions
      1. Semantics
2. Theory of computation
  1. Semantics and reasoning
    1. Program semantics

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cover image ACM Conferences

DLS '13: Proceedings of the 9th symposium on Dynamic languages

October 2013

118 pages

ISBN:9781450324335

DOI:10.1145/2508168

Co-chair:
Antony Hosking
Purdue University, USA
,
General Chair:
Patrick Eugster
Purdue University, USA
,
Program Chair:
Carl Friedrich Bolz
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 49, Issue 2
DLS '13
February 2014
105 pages
ISSN:0362-1340
EISSN:1558-1160
DOI:10.1145/2578856
Editor:
Mark W. Bailey
Hamilton College, Clinton, NY
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2013 ACM.

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Published: 28 October 2013

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SPLASH '13: Conference on Systems, Programming, and Applications: Software for Humanity

October 28, 2013

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DLS '13 Paper Acceptance Rate 9 of 22 submissions, 41%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 32 of 77 submissions, 42%

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Cited By

Troppmann DFass AStaicu CFilkov VRay BZhou M(2024)Typed and Confused: Studying the Unexpected Dangers of Gradual TypingProceedings of the 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering10.1145/3691620.3695549(1858-1870)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3691620.3695549
Wang PBangert JKern C(2021)If It’s Not Secure, It Should Not Compile: Preventing DOM-Based XSS in Large-Scale Web Development with API Hardening2021 IEEE/ACM 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE)10.1109/ICSE43902.2021.00123(1360-1372)Online publication date: May-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE43902.2021.00123
Serrano M(2020)JavaScript AOT compilationACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3393673.327695053:8(50-63)Online publication date: 6-Apr-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3393673.3276950
Kazerounian MGuria SVazou NFoster JVan Horn DMcKinley KFisher K(2019)Type-level computations for Ruby librariesProceedings of the 40th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation10.1145/3314221.3314630(966-979)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3314221.3314630
Malik RPatra JPradel MAtlee JBultan TWhittle J(2019)NL2TypeProceedings of the 41st International Conference on Software Engineering10.1109/ICSE.2019.00045(304-315)Online publication date: 25-May-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/ICSE.2019.00045
Naus NThiemann P(2019)Dynamic Flow Analysis for JavaScriptTrends in Functional Programming10.1007/978-3-030-14805-8_5(75-93)Online publication date: 21-Feb-2019
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14805-8_5
Serrano MFelgentreff T(2018)JavaScript AOT compilationProceedings of the 14th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages10.1145/3276945.3276950(50-63)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3276945.3276950
Canino ALiu Y(2017)Proactive and adaptive energy-aware programming with mixed typecheckingACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3140587.306235652:6(217-232)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3140587.3062356
Chaudhuri AVekris PGoldman SRoch MLevi G(2017)Fast and precise type checking for JavaScriptProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/31338721:OOPSLA(1-30)Online publication date: 12-Oct-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3133872
Chang SKnauth AGreenman B(2017)Type systems as macrosACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3093333.300988652:1(694-705)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3093333.3009886
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