Implementing a real computational-environment jump in order to develop a runtime-adaptable reflective platform

ABSTRACT

Different techniques are emerging in order to build adaptable computing systems and software engineering methods. Two examples in the software engineering field are aspect-oriented programming and multi-dimensional separation of concerns. They distinguish functional code from reusable crosscutting aspects, creating the final application by weaving the program and its specific aspects. They lack runtime adaptability, simply offering design-time adaptation.Dynamic adaptability is offered by MOP-based reflective systems. However, meta-object protocols (MOPs) restrict the amount of features an application may customize, and the way they can express this customization. Furthermore, this kind of systems uses a fixed programming language.What we present in this paper is a non-restrictive reflective system that achieves a real computational jump, making every application and language feature adaptable at runtime-without any previous restriction. Moreover, the reflection mechanism is independent of the language selected by the programmer.

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INDEX TERMS

Keywords:
aspect-oriented programming, generic interpreter, meta-object protocol, reflection, runtime adaptability