CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2009/wiki2 8 RP
Reflection Oriented Programming
Definition
Reflection is a process of reasoning about and acting up on by itself [1]. Throwing more clarity we can presume reflection as a computer code which can be dynamically modified in the process of execution. The dynamic modification depends on the code features and its run time behavior.A system which exhibits such reflective behavior is called as reflection oriented system.
Overview
This Article throws light up on what Reflection Oriented language is about. It deals with the need for such dynamic aspect and how it is useful in satisfying the practical needs.Further it highlights the research work that is carried out in this area and scope for future improvements.
Reflection oriented programming – Insights
Reflection
Reflection is the process of converting a programmatically expressed value into a component of interpreter state [2]. In the case of usual programs the information about itself (i.e the program) is lost as soon as it finishes compilation ,but in Reflection the program (object) needs to have information about its structures. This is done by storing it in the form of metadata[3].
There are two types of reflection based on its dynamic nature.Few programs support reflection during compilation. They are called as compile time or static reflection. Runtime reflections are those which are carried on during runtime and its the usual form of reflections.
Example of Reflections:
A simple ruby code does enough to understand the concept behind reflections
puts 12.kind_of?
The above code dynamically finds out what kind is 12 ? It returns the value integer. Thus reflection is done in ruby code to carry out operations during runtime with metaprogramming[4] enabled.
Reflection Oriented Program as Paradigm
Reflection oriented paradigm is a new paradigm used as an extension to the object oriented paradigm. It adds various features meeting the need of various applications and its very flexible. Its a dynamic run time paradigm unlike object oriented and procedure oriented paradigm. In this paradigm objects can be varied and modified according to the needs during the run time rather than creating static set of codes with a predetermined set of operations.
The dynamic decision in this paradigm is decided based up on the data being processed and the manipulation performed on those data set.Here is where the knowledge about its own structure plays a crucial role. On considering an example wherein a program needs to change dynamically on various sets of data (find an instance of that data or length) ,intercepting the interpreters becomes important. In these cases the program should consist of codes just to identify the data and to decide the operations to be performed on them.