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Declarable Modifiers: A Proposal to Increase the Efficacy of Metaclasses

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Reflection and Software Engineering (OORaSE 1999)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1826))

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Abstract

The amount of information available to metaprogrammer during intercession is limited. If a metaprogrammer has more information about the intentions of a programmer, the metaprogrammer can create more useful facilities. This paper proposes that object-oriented programming languages be designed so that metaprogrammers can declare new modifiers for methods and instance variables. Class programmers can use these modifiers to communicate intentions during intercession to the facilities created by metaprogrammers. This paper presents an extension to Java that has metaclasses. The intercessional features of the metaclasses are enhanced with the ability to declare both method and field modifiers. These modifiers are used by class programmers to communicate with a metaclass and control the effect of its intercession.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBM, Austin, TX

    Ira R. Forman

Authors
  1. Ira R. Forman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Informatica, Sistemistica e Comunicazione, Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, Italy

    Walter Cazzola

  2. Universitàa di Genova - DISI, Via Dodecaneso 35, 16146, Genova, Italy

    Walter Cazzola

  3. Department of Computer Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK

    Robert J. Stroud

  4. Dipartimento di Informatica, Sistemistica e Comunicazione, Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi 8, 20126, Milano, Italy

    Francesco Tisato

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Forman, I.R. (2000). Declarable Modifiers: A Proposal to Increase the Efficacy of Metaclasses. In: Cazzola, W., Stroud, R.J., Tisato, F. (eds) Reflection and Software Engineering. OORaSE 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1826. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45046-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45046-7_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-67761-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45046-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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