Bootstrapping Reflective Systems: The Case of Pharo

Guillermo Polito (1, 2) , Stéphane Ducasse (2) , Luc Fabresse (3) , Noury Bouraqadi (3) , Benjamin van Ryseghem (2)

1 Mines Douai EMD - École des Mines de Douai
2 RMOD - Analyses and Languages Constructs for Object-Oriented Application Evolution
3 CERI SN - IMT Nord Europe - Centre for Digital Systems

Bootstrapping is a technique commonly known by its usage in language definition by the introduction of a compiler written in the same language it compiles. This process is important to understand and modify the definition of a given language using the same language, taking benefit of the abstractions and expression power it provides. A bootstrap, then, supports the evolution of a language. However, the infrastructure of reflective systems like Smalltalk includes, in addition to a compiler, an environment with several self-references. A reflective system bootstrap should consider all its infrastructural components. In this paper, we propose a definition of bootstrap for object-oriented reflective systems, we describe the architecture and components it should contain and we analyze the challenges it has to overcome. Finally, we present a reference bootstrap process for a reflective system and Hazelnut, its implementation for bootstrapping the Pharo Smalltalk-inspired system.

Mots clés: Object-Oriented Programming and Design; Bootstrap; Smalltalk; Software Evolution

Domaines: Langage de programmation [cs.PL]; Bibliothèque électronique [cs.DL]

Guillermo Polito, Stéphane Ducasse, Luc Fabresse, Noury Bouraqadi, Benjamin van Ryseghem. Bootstrapping Reflective Systems: The Case of Pharo. Science of Computer Programming, 2014, 96, pp.18. ⟨10.1016/j.scico.2013.10.008⟩. ⟨hal-00903724⟩