NDLI: Flexible object layouts: enabling lightweight language extensions by intercepting slot access

Content Provider	ACM Digital Library
Author	Verwaest, Toon Bruni, Camillo Nierstrasz, Oscar Lungu, Mircea
Abstract	Programming idioms, design patterns and application libraries often introduce cumbersome and repetitive boilerplate code to a software system. Language extensions and external DSLs (domain specific languages) are sometimes introduced to reduce the need for boilerplate code, but they also complicate the system by introducing the need for language dialects and inter-language mediation. To address this, we propose to extend the structural reflective model of the language with object layouts, layout scopes and slots. Based on the new reflective language model we can 1) provide behavioral hooks to object layouts that are triggered when the fields of an object are accessed and 2) simplify the implementation of state-related language extensions such as stateful traits. By doing this we show how many idiomatic use cases that normally require boilerplate code can be more effectively supported. We present an implementation in Smalltalk, and illustrate its usage through a series of extended examples.
Starting Page	959
Ending Page	972
Page Count	14
File Format	PDF
ISBN	9781450309400
DOI	10.1145/2048066.2048138
Language	English
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Publisher Date	2011-10-22
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Subject Keyword	Smalltalk Structural reflection Metaobject protocol Traits
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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Flexible object layouts: enabling lightweight language extensions by intercepting slot access