METAJ(ID:3583/met012)

Reflective compiler for a Subset of Java

Douance and Subholt

Universty of Nantes 1999
Related languages
3-LISP => METAJ   Influence
Java => METAJ   Subset
References:
  • Remi Douence and Mario Sudholt "The next 700 reflective object-oriented languages" Ecole des mines de Nantes Technical report no.: 99-1-INFO view details Abstract: Abstract Since Smith seminal work, there have been numerous reflective language definition and implementation proposals. These proposals, initially restricted to functional languages, have been quickly extended to object-oriented languages. Unfortunately, reflective objectoriented language definitions remained mostly ad hoc.

    In this paper, we present a generic reification technique which enables the selective reification of arbitrary parts of object-oriented language interpreters. Our program transformation can be applied to different interpreter definitions. Each resulting reflective implementation provides a different meta-object protocol based on the original interpreter definition. This technique paves the way to a systematic study of reflective object-oriented language implementations. ps