9,522 research outputs found
The ciao modular, standalone compiler and its generic program processing library
Ciao Prolog incorporates a module system which allows sepĂĄrate compilation and sensible creation of standalone executables. We describe some of the main aspects of the Ciao modular compiler, ciaoc, which takes advantage of the characteristics of the Ciao Prolog module system to automatically perform sepĂĄrate and incremental compilation and efficiently build small, standalone executables with competitive run-time performance, ciaoc can also detect statically a larger number of programming errors. We also present a generic code processing library for handling modular programs, which provides an important part of the functionality of ciaoc. This library allows the development of program analysis and transformation tools in a way that is to some extent orthogonal to the details of module system design, and has been used in the implementation of ciaoc and other Ciao system tools. We also describe the different types of executables which can be generated by the
Ciao compiler, which offer different tradeoffs between executable size, startup time, and portability, depending, among other factors, on the linking regime used (static, dynamic, lazy, etc.). Finally, we provide experimental data which illustrate these tradeoffs
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Arcturus user's guide
This document describes the Arcturus programming environment, a first realization of an advanced programming environment based on the programming language Ada. It is the first environment that supplies interactive, "statement (or declaration) at a time" execution of Ada program fragments
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Steps to an advanced Ada programming environment
Conceptual simplicity, tight coupling of tools, and effective support of host-target software development will characterize advanced Ada programming support environments. Several important principles have been demonstrated in the Arcturus system, including template-assisted Ada editing, command completion using Ada as a command language, and combining the advantages of interpretation and compliation. Other principles, relating to analysis, testing, and debugging of concurrent Ada programs, have appeared in other contexts. This paper discusses several of these topics, considers how they can be integrated, and argues for their inclusion in an environment appropriate for software development in the late 1980's
VXA: A Virtual Architecture for Durable Compressed Archives
Data compression algorithms change frequently, and obsolete decoders do not
always run on new hardware and operating systems, threatening the long-term
usability of content archived using those algorithms. Re-encoding content into
new formats is cumbersome, and highly undesirable when lossy compression is
involved. Processor architectures, in contrast, have remained comparatively
stable over recent decades. VXA, an archival storage system designed around
this observation, archives executable decoders along with the encoded content
it stores. VXA decoders run in a specialized virtual machine that implements an
OS-independent execution environment based on the standard x86 architecture.
The VXA virtual machine strictly limits access to host system services, making
decoders safe to run even if an archive contains malicious code. VXA's adoption
of a "native" processor architecture instead of type-safe language technology
allows reuse of existing "hand-optimized" decoders in C and assembly language,
and permits decoders access to performance-enhancing architecture features such
as vector processing instructions. The performance cost of VXA's virtualization
is typically less than 15% compared with the same decoders running natively.
The storage cost of archived decoders, typically 30-130KB each, can be
amortized across many archived files sharing the same compression method.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 2 table
Toward the efficient implementation of expert systems in Ada
Here, the authors describe Ada language issues encountered during the development of ART-Ada, an expert system tool for Ada deployment. ART-Ada is being used to implement several expert system applications for the Space Station Freedom and the U.S. Air Force. Additional information is given on dynamic memory allocation
Linguistic Reflection in Java
Reflective systems allow their own structures to be altered from within. Here
we are concerned with a style of reflection, called linguistic reflection,
which is the ability of a running program to generate new program fragments and
to integrate these into its own execution. In particular we describe how this
kind of reflection may be provided in the compiler-based, strongly typed
object-oriented programming language Java. The advantages of the programming
technique include attaining high levels of genericity and accommodating system
evolution. These advantages are illustrated by an example taken from persistent
programming which shows how linguistic reflection allows functionality (program
code) to be generated on demand (Just-In-Time) from a generic specification and
integrated into the evolving running program. The technique is evaluated
against alternative implementation approaches with respect to efficiency,
safety and ease of use.Comment: 25 pages. Source code for examples at
http://www-ppg.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/Java/ReflectionExample/ Dynamic compilation
package at http://www-ppg.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/Java/DynamicCompilation
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