Compiling Package Templates

Abstract

In Java, the package concept is a means for modularization of the code, in the same way as e.g namespaces are for some other languages. However, the flexibility of packages for reuse of code is not very good. Introducing Package Templates is a proposal to improve this situation, by moving the package one step towards a generic concept.

The JPT language extends Java with the Package Template concept, and the JPT compiler has been developed alongside the development of the PT concept and the JPT language. This compiler is a necessary tool when evaluating the usefullness of Package Templates for large scale programming.

This thesis describes the JPT language through explanations of the concepts and through code samples showing how these concepts are applied. It also discusses the design and implementation of the JPT compiler and some of the technologies that are used for building this compiler, and finally, it documents some of the recent changes that have been made to the JPT compiler.