On Extending Java
The design of Java sports a simple and elegant object model. Its
simplicity may well be the language's main selling point - it is both easy
to learn and to implement - but in the long run the same simplicity may
prove to be a sign of a lack of expressive power that could hinder the
development of large software systems. We present four non-intrusive
language extensions, tuples, closures, anonymous objects and iterators,
give examples of use and detail a translation scheme into plain Java.
These extensions enhance the expressive power of Java and allow certain
common programming idioms to be coded more naturally.
These four extensions are described in an article which appeared at JMLC'97
(abstract and
article (36402 bytes)).
As soon as the translator from extended Java to plain Java is ready for
distribution, we will make it available for download.
Last updated by Andreas Krall on
March 17th 1997.