JavaGI [Elektronische Ressource] : a language with generalized interfaces / Stefan Wehr

JavaGIA Language with Generalized InterfacesStefan Wehr2010Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Technischen Fakultat derAlbert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg im BreisgauDekan der Technischen Fakultat: Prof. Dr. Hans Zappe1. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Peter Thiemann, Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Ralf Lammel, Universitat Koblenz-Landau Tag der Disputation: 9. Juli 2010iiAbstractComponent-based software development in statically typed, object-oriented program-ming languages has proven successful in reducing development costs and raising softwarequality. However, this form of software development still poses many challenges and thusrequires better support on the programming language level.The language JavaGI, a conservative extension of Java 1.5, o ers generalized inter-faces as an e ective improvement. Generalized interfaces subsume retroactive and type-conditional interface implementations, binary methods, symmetric multiple dispatch,interfaces over families of types, and static interface methods. These features allownon-invasive and in-place object adaptation, thus enabling solutions to several softwareextension, adaptation, and integration problems with components in binary form. Fur-ther, they make certain coding patterns redundant and increase the expressiveness of thetype system.