In this paper, we describe AmbientTalk: a domainspecific language for orchestrating service discovery and composition in mobile ad hoc networks. AmbientTalk is a distributed object-oriented programming language whose actor-based, eventdriven concurrency model makes it highly suitable for composing service objects across a mobile network. The language is a so-called ambient-oriented programming language which treats network partitions as a normal mode of operation. We describe AmbientTalk's object model, concurrency model and distributed communication model in detail. We also highlight the major influences from other languages and middleware that have shaped AmbientTalk's design.
Virtual machine (VM) implementations are made of intricately intertwined subsystems, interacting largely through implicit dependencies. As the degree of crosscutting present in VMs is very high, VM implementations exhibit significant internal complexity. This paper proposes an architecture approach for VMs that regards a VM as a composite of service modules coordinated through explicit bidirectional interfaces. Aspect-oriented programming techniques are used to establish these interfaces, to coordinate module interaction, and to declaratively express concrete VM architectures. A VM architecture description language is presented in a case study, illustrating the application of the proposed architectural principles.
This paper introduces a novel mechanism to perform intercession (a form of reflection) in an object‐oriented programming language with the goal of making the language extensible from within itself. The proposed mechanism builds upon a mirror‐based architecture, leading to a reusable reflective application programming interface that cleanly separates interface from implementation details. However, support for intercession has been limited in contemporary mirror‐based architectures. This is due to the fact that mirror‐based architectures only support reflection explicitly triggered by metaprograms, while intercession requires reflection implicitly triggered by the language interpreter. This work reconciles mirrors with intercession in the context of an actor‐based, object‐oriented programming language named AmbientTalk. We describe this language's full reflective architecture, highlighting its novel mirror‐based approach to reflect upon both objects and concurrently executing actors. Subsequently, we apply AmbientTalk's mirror‐based reflection to implement two language features, which crucially depend on intercession, to wit future‐type message passing and leased object references. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The upcoming many-core architectures require software developers to exploit concurrency to utilize available computational power. Today's high-level language virtual machines (VMs), which are a cornerstone of software development, do not provide sufficient abstraction for concurrency concepts. We analyze concrete and abstract concurrency models and identify the challenges they impose for VMs. To provide sufficient concurrency support in VMs, we propose to integrate concurrency operations into VM instruction sets. Since there will always be VMs optimized for special purposes, our goal is to develop a methodology to design instruction sets with concurrency support. Therefore, we also propose a list of trade-offs that have to be investigated to advise the design of such instruction sets. As a first experiment, we implemented one instruction set extension for shared memory and one for non-shared memory concurrency. From our experimental results, we derived a list of requirements for a full-grown experimental environment for further research
High-level language virtual machine implementations offer a challenging domain for modularization, not only because they are inherently complex, but also because efficiency is not likely to be traded for modularity. The central data structure used throughout the VM, the object layout, cannot be succinctly modularised by current aspect technology, as provisions for static crosscutting are not fine-grained enough. This position paper motivates the need for a declarative, domain-specific language for handling the tangled object layout concern. Based on observations in real-world VM implementations, we propose such a language, D4OL. It combines a two-level layout mapping, constraints and an engine to divide responsibilities between VM component and VM developers. We consider a domain-specific language like D4OL a necessary complement to behavioural aspect languages in order to modularize VM implementations.
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