A flexible model for dynamic linking in Java and C#

Dynamic linking supports flexible code deployment, allowing partially linked code to link further code on the fly, as needed. Thus, end-users enjoy the advantage of automatically receiving any updates, without any need for any explicit actions on their side, such as re-compilation, or re-linking. On the down side, two executions of a program may link in different versions of code, which in some cases causes subtle errors, and may mystify end-users. Dynamic linking in Java and C# are similar: the same linking phases are involved, soundness is based on similar ideas, and executions which do not throw linking errors give the same result. They are, however, not identical: the linking phases are combined differently, and take place in different order. Consequently, linking errors may be detected at different times by Java and C# runtime systems. We develop a non-deterministic model, which describes the behaviour of both Java and C# program executions. The nondeterminism allows us to describe the design space, to distill the similarities between the two languages, and to use one proof of soundness for both. We also prove that all execution strategies are equivalent with respect to terminating executions that do not throw link errors: they give the same results

Method overloading and overriding cause encapsulation flaw

International audienceBased on an experiment using three languages under .NET, this paper argues that the semantic differences between these languages regarding method overloading and overriding give rise to significant complexity and break encapsulation. We first recalls the various interpretations of overriding and overloading in object oriented languages through what we call language signatures. Then, we realize an experimentation with .NET components coded in different Programming languages in order to observe the global behavior. From this, we show that overriding and overloading are not compatible with a key property of components: encapsulation. We conclude that, in the current state of the art, in order to build predictable assembly, components must expose their internal structure! We propose a solution to this problem

A Calculus for Dynamic Linking

We define a calculus for modeling dynamic linking independently of the details of a particular programming environment

Modeling Multiple Class Loaders by a Calculus for Dynamic Linking

In a recent paper we proposed a calculus for modeling dynamic linking independently of the details of a particular programming environment