Adaptive Parameter Passing

Control over parameter passing is a key issue in distributed object-oriented applications. The two simplest solutions - passing objects by global reference and passing objects by deep copy - both have significant drawbacks. Instead, an intermediate amount of copying is often best. However, achieving the right amount of copying is difficult for two reasons: (i) compilers and operating systems cannot automatically make the best decision on how much to copy; (ii) there hasn't been a good mechanism for the programmer to express the intermediate amount of copying that should be done.

This paper presents a new mechanism that allows programmers to express in a natural and succinct way how much of the object graph should be copied to the remote context. The specifications are done using a very simple declarative meta-language -- GOOP -- that has graphs of classes as its domain. GOOP allows the specification of: (i) whether the parameter object should be passed by copy or by reference; and (ii) if passed by copy, what parts of the parameter object's graph should be copied.

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1996.

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer-Verlag. Violations are liable for prosecution under the German Copyright Law.

Download paper.