Dynamic Reflection for a Statically Typed Language

Abstract

We present a runtime metalevel interface for BETA. BETA is a compiled and statically typed object-oriented programming language. The metalevel interface preserves the type safe properties of the language and supports static type checking. This is achieved through a novel language construct, the attribute reference, on top of which the metalevel interfacer is built. The metalevel interface is based on a simple conceptual model that reifies a few basic language primitives. For the implementation, a metalevel architecture based on a virtual machine view of the runtime system is introduced. In this model, an open implementation of compiled language is achieved by providening the runtime virtual machine with a metalevel interface supporting runtime reflection.