Library development has greatly benefited form the wide adop- tion of virtual machines like Java and Microsoft .NET. Reflection services and first class dynamic loading have contributed to this trend. Microsoft introduced the notion of custom annotation, which is a way for the programmer to define custom metadata stored along reflection meta-data within the executable file. Re- cently, Java also has introduced an equivalent notion into the virtual machine. Custom annotations allow the programmer to give hints to libraries about his intention without having to intro- duce semantic dependencies within the program; on the other hand these annotations are read at runtime introducing a certain amount of overhead. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of this new feature on library design, focusing both on expressivity and performance issues.
Metadata-driven library design
CISTERNINO, ANTONIO;
2005-01-01
Abstract
Library development has greatly benefited form the wide adop- tion of virtual machines like Java and Microsoft .NET. Reflection services and first class dynamic loading have contributed to this trend. Microsoft introduced the notion of custom annotation, which is a way for the programmer to define custom metadata stored along reflection meta-data within the executable file. Re- cently, Java also has introduced an equivalent notion into the virtual machine. Custom annotations allow the programmer to give hints to libraries about his intention without having to intro- duce semantic dependencies within the program; on the other hand these annotations are read at runtime introducing a certain amount of overhead. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of this new feature on library design, focusing both on expressivity and performance issues.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
