Waterfall: Primitives Generation on the Fly

Chari, Guido; Garbervetsky, Diego; Bruni, Camillo; Denker, Marcus; Ducasse, Stephane

Document type :

Pré-publication ou Document de travail

Title :

Waterfall: Primitives Generation on the Fly

Author(s) :

Chari, Guido [Auteur]
Laboratory on Foundations and Tools for Software Engineering [Buenos Aires] [LAFHIS]
Garbervetsky, Diego [Auteur]
Laboratory on Foundations and Tools for Software Engineering [Buenos Aires] [LAFHIS]
Bruni, Camillo [Auteur]
Analyses and Languages Constructs for Object-Oriented Application Evolution [RMOD]
Denker, Marcus [Auteur]

Analyses and Languages Constructs for Object-Oriented Application Evolution [RMOD]
Ducasse, Stephane [Auteur]

Analyses and Languages Constructs for Object-Oriented Application Evolution [RMOD]

HAL domain(s) :

Informatique [cs]/Langage de programmation [cs.PL]

English abstract : [en]

Modern languages are typically supported by managed runtimes (Virtual Machines). Since VMs have to deal with many concepts such as memory management, abstract execution model and scheduling, they tend to be very complex. ...
Show more >Modern languages are typically supported by managed runtimes (Virtual Machines). Since VMs have to deal with many concepts such as memory management, abstract execution model and scheduling, they tend to be very complex. Additionally, VMs have to meet strong performance requirements. This demand of performance is one of the main reasons why many VMs are built statically. Thus, design decisions are frozen at compile time preventing changes at runtime. One clear example is the impossibility to dynamically adapt or change primitives of the VM once it has been compiled. In this work we present a toolchain that allows for altering and configuring components such as primitives and plug-ins at runtime. The main contribution is Waterfall, a dynamic and reflective translator from Slang, a restricted subset of Smalltalk, to native code. Waterfall generates primitives on demand and executes them on the fly. We validate our approach by implementing dynamic primitive modification and runtime customization of VM plug-ins.Show less >

Language :

Anglais

European Project :

Towards safer and more reliable, relevant and secure computer systems

Collections :