A Virtual Machine Design For Nest-Free Programming

Abstract

This paper describes the more novel features of a virtual machine designed to support a nest-free, highlevel programming language. The machine is a stack based machine using tagged words and polymorphic operators. The design reflects the project's major goal of very high level support for the language allowing for straightforward compilation and direct support of a high-level debugging facility. The language for which the machine was designed is modular and does not allow the nesting of procedures or modules. It is strongly typed and provides for parametric (generic) type modules. Exceptions and exception handling are provided, but as yet only sequential processing is supported, although parallel processing may be added in the future using the message passing model.

Résumé

Dans cette épreuve, il s’agit des plus nouvelles particularités d’une machine similie conçue pour soutenir un langage de programmation complexe et linéaire. La machine fonctionne selon un système d’empilage qui utilise des mots clefs et des signes mathématiques polymorphes. Le modèle réflète le but principal du project, à savoir, un soutien très complexe pour le langage machine qui permet de la compilation directe de l’information et du support direct d’un appareil pour la correction d’erreurs. Le langage pour lequel la machine a été conçue est modulaire et ne permet l’entrelacement ni des procédures ni des modules. Il est très fixe et s’accommode au genre paramétrique (générique) de modules. On en fournit des variantes aussi bien que leur application, mais, jusqu’ici, seulement du traitement séquentiel est soutenu, bien qu’à l’avenir on puisse ajouter du traitement parallèle, utilisant l’unité pour le transfert d’information.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

B. Stramm

BERND STRAMM finished school with the Arbitur in 1978 and graduated from Brock University with B SC (hons) in Computer Science in October 1984. He has worked for over ten years in various functions in the design and implementation of application packages for dental offices. Mr Stramm is currently registered as a graduate student in Computer Science at University of Califomia at San Diego, La Jolla, CA.

D. Hughes

DAVID J.F. HUGHES graduated from the University of Manitoba in October 1979 with a PH D in Computer Science, after also receiving M sc and B sc (hons) from the same institution. He is currently an Associate Professor at Brock University in the Department of Computer Science and Information Processing. Dr Hughes's research interests include programming language design and programming methodology.