Mirrors: design principles for meta-level facilities of object-oriented programming languages

ABSTRACT

We identify three design principles for reflection and metaprogramming facilities in object oriented programming languages. <i>Encapsulation</i>: meta-level facilities must encapsulate their implementation. <i>Stratification</i>: meta-level facilities must be separated from base-level functionality. <i>Ontological correspondence</i>: the ontology of meta-level facilities should correspond to the ontology of the language they manipulate. Traditional/mainstream reflective architectures do not follow these precepts. In contrast, reflective APIs built around the concept of <i>mirrors</i> are characterized by adherence to these three principles. Consequently, mirror-based architectures have significant advantages with respect to distribution, deployment and general purpose metaprogramming.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications
          Subjects: Object-oriented languages

General Terms:
Design, Languages

Keywords:
java, metaprogramming, mirrors, reflection, self, smalltalk