Supporting meta-types in a compiled, reflective programming language

Abstract

Software engineering in a distributed, heterogeneous environment is faced with a number of challenges. With distribution comes the need for synchronisation, transactions, and fault-tolerance while support for different operating systems also has to be taken into account. The distributed and dynamic nature of applications in such an environment also imposes special requirements in terms of adaptability : components being added to or removed from the system may require applications to adapt themselves to the changed environment. Development should moreover not be restricted to one particular programming language.