Bootstrapping the Object Oriented Operating System Merlin: Just Add Reflection

Assumpcao Jr, Jecel M.
Kofuji, Sergio T.

Accepted at Meta'95


Abstract

Pure object oriented programming languages (like Self) present a very abstract view of the hardware to the programmer, and so are unlikely candidates for system software development. The Merlin operating system uses a reflective structure that allows the programmer to move cleanly between different abstraction levels to get around this problem, but this introduces other difficulties in the form of circular definitions. This paper shows how a step by step introduction of reflection into the system can handle this apparently impossible situation.

10 references


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please send comments to jecel@lsi.usp.br (Jecel Mattos de Assumpcao Jr), who changed this page on Jun 29, 18:07 .