Trustworthy Systems

A declarative approach to extensible interface compilation

Authors

Nicholas FitzRoy-Dale

NICTA, Sydney, Australia
UNSW, Australia

Abstract

In microkernel-based operating systems, source-to-source compilers generate code to ease the process of marshaling data for communication via message passing. However, the rule of thumb for these interface compilers seems to be "simple, extensible, efficient output — pick any one". I argue that the major cause of extensibility-limiting complexity in interface compilers comes from the source-to-source transformation code itself, and this complexity is primarily a result of the difficulties inherent in supporting multiple targets. I describe a specification-based approach for generating interface compilers, discuss the advantages of such an approach over a procedural approach, and outline a proposed implementation, with particular reference to the advantages of a specification-based approach to interface compilation in terms of flexibility and extensibility.

BibTeX Entry

  @inproceedings{FitzRoyDale_07,
    address          = {Sydney, Australia},
    author           = {Nicholas FitzRoy-Dale},
    booktitle        = {International Workshop on Microkernels for Embedded Systems},
    month            = jan,
    paperurl         = {https://trustworthy.systems/publications/papers/FitzRoyDale_07.pdf},
    title            = {A declarative approach to extensible interface compilation},
    year             = {2007}
  }

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