Poplar

Abstract

Class evolution in object-oriented programming often causes socalled breaking changes, largely because of the rigidity of component interconnections in the form of explicit method calls and field accesses. We present a Java extension, Poplar, which we are currently developing. In Poplar, inter-component dependencies are expressed using declarative queries; concrete linking code, generated using a planning algorithm, replaces these at compile time. We show how Poplar can enable fully automatic integration of Java components through evolvable and statically checkable integration links, pointing the way to a new general composition method for object-oriented languages.