From the reviews: "A professional Java programmer must know what his program exactly will do, if it is run on a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). To help these professionals, the book presents a mathematical framework using the notation of Abstract State Machines (ASMs). ... it is addressed to professional software engineers and to advanced students who require a complete and exact definition of Java and of the behaviour of the JVM. With AsmGofer an interesting experimental system for program verification is available." (W. Brecht, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 978, 2002)

• 1. Introduction.- 1.1 The goals of the book.- 1.2 The contents of the book.- 1.3 Decomposing Java and the JVM.- 1.4 Sources and literature.- 2. Abstract State Machines.- 2.1 ASMs in a nutshell.- 2.2 Mathematical definition of ASMs.- 2.3 Notational conventions.- I. Java.- 3. The imperative core JavaI of Java.- 4. The procedural extension JavaC of JavaI.- 5. The object-oriented extension $${\text{Jav}}{ {\text{a}}_\mathcal{O}}$$ of JavaC.- 6. The exception-handling extension Java? of $${\text{Jav}}{ {\text{a}}_\mathcal{O}}$$.- 7. The concurrent extension JavaT of Java?.- 8. Java is type safe.- II. Compilation of Java: The Trustful JVM.- 9. The JVMI submachine.- 10. The procedural extension JVMC of JVMI.- 11. The object-oriented extension $${\text{JV}}{ {\text{M}}_\mathcal{O}}$$ of JVMC.- 12. The exception-handling extension JVM? of $${\text{JV}}{ {\text{M}}_\mathcal{O}}$$.- 13. Executing the JVMN.- 14. Correctness of the compiler.- III. Bytecode Verification: The Secure JVM.- 15. The defensive virtual machine.- 16. Bytecode type assignments.- 17. The diligent virtual machine.- 18. The dynamic virtual machine.- A. Executable Models.- A.1 Overview.- A.2 Java.- A.3 Compiler.- A.4 Java Virtual Machine.- B. Java.- B.1 Rules.- B.2 Arrays.- C. JVM.- C.1 Trustful execution.- C.2 Defensive execution.- C.3 Diligent execution.- C.4 Check functions.- C.5 Successor functions.- C.6 Constraints.- C.7 Arrays.- C.8 Abstract versus real instructions.- D. Compiler.- D.1 Compilation functions.- D.2 maxOpd.- D.3 Arrays.- References.- List of Figures.- List of Tables.

From the reviews: "A professional Java programmer must know what his program exactly will do, if it is run on a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). To help these professionals, the book presents a mathematical framework using the notation of Abstract State Machines (ASMs). ... it is addressed to professional software engineers and to advanced students who require a complete and exact definition of Java and of the behaviour of the JVM. With AsmGofer an interesting experimental system for program verification is available." (W. Brecht, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 978, 2002)

• 1. Introduction.- 1.1 The goals of the book.- 1.2 The contents of the book.- 1.3 Decomposing Java and the JVM.- 1.4 Sources and literature.- 2. Abstract State Machines.- 2.1 ASMs in a nutshell.- 2.2 Mathematical definition of ASMs.- 2.3 Notational conventions.- I. Java.- 3. The imperative core JavaI of Java.- 4. The procedural extension JavaC of JavaI.- 5. The object-oriented extension $${\text{Jav}}{ {\text{a}}_\mathcal{O}}$$ of JavaC.- 6. The exception-handling extension Java? of $${\text{Jav}}{ {\text{a}}_\mathcal{O}}$$.- 7. The concurrent extension JavaT of Java?.- 8. Java is type safe.- II. Compilation of Java: The Trustful JVM.- 9. The JVMI submachine.- 10. The procedural extension JVMC of JVMI.- 11. The object-oriented extension $${\text{JV}}{ {\text{M}}_\mathcal{O}}$$ of JVMC.- 12. The exception-handling extension JVM? of $${\text{JV}}{ {\text{M}}_\mathcal{O}}$$.- 13. Executing the JVMN.- 14. Correctness of the compiler.- III. Bytecode Verification: The Secure JVM.- 15. The defensive virtual machine.- 16. Bytecode type assignments.- 17. The diligent virtual machine.- 18. The dynamic virtual machine.- A. Executable Models.- A.1 Overview.- A.2 Java.- A.3 Compiler.- A.4 Java Virtual Machine.- B. Java.- B.1 Rules.- B.2 Arrays.- C. JVM.- C.1 Trustful execution.- C.2 Defensive execution.- C.3 Diligent execution.- C.4 Check functions.- C.5 Successor functions.- C.6 Constraints.- C.7 Arrays.- C.8 Abstract versus real instructions.- D. Compiler.- D.1 Compilation functions.- D.2 maxOpd.- D.3 Arrays.- References.- List of Figures.- List of Tables.