Generative programming

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Generative programming Middleware

• Farid Hosseini
• Reza Azimi
• Feb 6,2003
• University of Toronto

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Agenda,

• Part 1 (by Farid Hosseini)
• What is Generative Programming (GP)
• How GP Helps middleware
• Q/A
• Part 2 (by Reza Azimi)
• How Middleware Helps GP
• Q/A

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What is Generative Programming?
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Status of Generative Programming (GP)

• GP requires skills that are not mainstream.
• GP is not user-friendly.
• GP is not widely used.
• Most Developers do not use GP as a design or
  implementation strategy.
• ( ECOOP2002 Workshop on Generative
  Programming)

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Whats new in Generative Programming?

• The current practice
• Manually Searching for components
• Manually adapting components
• Manual assembly
• Generative Programming,
• automatic selection and assembly of components on
  demand.
• (Definition provided by K. Czarnecky )

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What does the Programmer do in GP?

• The programmer states what s/he wants
• Modelling
• The generator produces the desired system or
  component.
• Code generation
• (K. Czarnecky )

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Aspects of Generative Programming

• representation of the problem domain
• implementation of the solution domain
• ( ECOOP2002 Workshop on Generative
  Programming)

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Domain-Modelling Code Generation

• Three things are required
• A modelling tool
• To define what you want
• A code generator
• To close the gap between the domain and the code
  worlds
• A component library.
• To facilitate the code generation
• (Application Development Advisor Magazine)

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How is it possible?
GENERATOR

• Model
• Generator
• Library of components
• Code

Code
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How is it possible?

• By direct mapping from each modeling element to
  the generation of a set of intentionally
  equivalent source code statements.
• When a library of components is available, the
  model interpreter can leverage a larger
  granularity of reuse by generating configurations
  of the available components.
• (Generating Aspect Code from Models paper)

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Templates and Generators

• Templates are a user-friendly way to specify an
  implementation.
• A templating component can be used by the code
  generator to emit source code.
• This approach is language and domain model
  neutral.
• ( ECOOP2002 Workshop on Generative
  Programming)

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A Pretty Template

• public class Person
• //-for-each-field-//
• private String mField ""
• public String getField()
• return mField
• public void setField( String pField )
• mField pField
• //-end-//

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How Middleware Helps Generative Programming?
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Introduction

• Our methodology of pursuing the interoperability
  of different models is established on the idea of
  Generative Programming (GP)
• The generative automation of middleware for
  building the interoperability.
• (Wei Zhao)

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How is it possible?

• What are the Modelling Elements for a Middleware?

Model

GENERATOR
Modelling Elements
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Middleware Elements
Scheduling Service
Standard Synchronizers
Thread Pools
Protocol Properties
Explicit Binding
Portable Priorities
www.cs.wustl.edu/schmidt/TAO.html
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Component Of The Shelf (COTS)
Many hardware software APIs and protocols are
now standardized, e.g.
(Douglas C. Schmith)
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Middleware Generator
(Douglas C. Schmith)
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Middleware Generator at work
CORBA/Java/COM Applications

• A Generated Middleware needs
• A common internal representation (ideally
  auto-generated) for each middleware specification
  
• Based on generalizing the middleware semantics

Common ORB Assorted Tools

• A generated implementation that is optimized
  automatically for each target platform
  application use-case
• Based on reflective assessment of platform
  descriptions application use-case

Common Semantic Representation
Plat1 Impl
Plat2 Impl
Plat3 Impl
(Douglas C. Schmith)
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Q/A