Supporting Binary Compatibility with Static Compilation

Yu, Dejian; Shao, Zhong; Trifonov, Valery

doi:10.21236/ada436477

“…The importance of binary compatibility was also recognized in the paper by Forman, et al, which they summarize as "Only application alteration necessitates recompilation" on page 430 [36] . According to Yu, et al this paper was a precursor to to Java's concept of binary compatibility [58].…”

Section: The Problem Of Fragile Abismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many Java compilers that support static compilation at first ignored binary compatibility in the interest of performance; one such compiler was the GNU Java Compiler, GCJ [4]. Later research by Yu, Shao, and Trifonov showed how to support static compilation and binary compatibility [58]. These techniques were later integrated into GCJ [53].…”

Section: Binary Compatibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

ABI compatibility through a customizable language

AtkinsonKevin¹,

FlattMatthew²,

2010

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ZL is a C++-compatible language in which high-level constructs, such as classes, are defined using macros over a C-like core language. This approach is similar in spirit to Scheme and makes many parts of the language easily customizable. For example, since the class construct can be defined using macros, a programmer can have complete control over the memory layout of objects. Using this capability, a programmer can mitigate certain problems in software evolution such as fragile ABIs (Application Binary Interfaces) due to software changes and incompatible ABIs due to compiler changes.ZL's parser and macro expander is similar to that of Scheme. Unlike Scheme, however, ZL must deal with C's richer syntax. Specifically, support for context-sensitive parsing and multiple syntactic categories (expressions, statements, types, etc.) leads to novel strategies for parsing and macro expansion.In this dissertation we describe ZL's approach to parsing and macros. We demonstrate how to use ZL to avoid problems with ABI instability through techniques such as fixing the size of class instances and controlling the layout of virtual method dispatch tables. We also demonstrate how to avoid problems with ABI incompatibility by implementing another compiler's ABI.Future work includes a more complete implementation of C++ and elevating the approach so that it is driven by a declarative ABI specification language.ii

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“…The Java concept of binary compatibility was first developed in SOM [36] and then later defined in the Java Language Specification (JLS) [39,58]. In Java the ABI is completely specified in The Java Virtual Machine Specification [43], thus addressing the issue of incompatible ABIs.…”

Section: Binary Compatibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

ABI compatibility through a customizable language

Atkinson

¹

,

Flatt

²

,

Lindstrom

³

2010

Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Generative Programming and Component Engineering

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ZL is a C++-compatible language in which high-level constructs, such as classes, are defined using macros over a C-like core language. This approach is similar in spirit to Scheme and makes many parts of the language easily customizable. For example, since the class construct can be defined using macros, a programmer can have complete control over the memory layout of objects. Using this capability, a programmer can mitigate certain problems in software evolution such as fragile ABIs (Application Binary Interfaces) due to software changes and incompatible ABIs due to compiler changes.ZL's parser and macro expander is similar to that of Scheme. Unlike Scheme, however, ZL must deal with C's richer syntax. Specifically, support for context-sensitive parsing and multiple syntactic categories (expressions, statements, types, etc.) leads to novel strategies for parsing and macro expansion.In this dissertation we describe ZL's approach to parsing and macros. We demonstrate how to use ZL to avoid problems with ABI instability through techniques such as fixing the size of class instances and controlling the layout of virtual method dispatch tables. We also demonstrate how to avoid problems with ABI incompatibility by implementing another compiler's ABI.Future work includes a more complete implementation of C++ and elevating the approach so that it is driven by a declarative ABI specification language.ii

show abstract