Component Programming with Object-Oriented Signals

  • Sean McDirmid | University of Utah

This talk presents a component glue code language called SuperGlue. Components in programs with interactive processing requirements, such as user interface programs, often interact by continuously viewing each others’ volatile state. These kinds of interactions are difficult to express in most programming languages because the event handling code that reacts to changes in state is very repetitive. SuperGlue eliminates this repetitive glue code with time-varying value abstractions known as signals, which encapsulate event handling details through a standardized interface for communicating volatile state. The way signals are connected between components is analogous to how methods undergo virtual dispatch in object-oriented languages: programmers write rules that specify how an object’s signals are connected according to its type and how it is connected to other objects. With this programming model, complicated component interactions can be concisely expressed in SuperGlue code. For example, the implementation of an email client in SuperGlue is substantially less complicated than a comparable implementation in Java. This talk will motivate and describe SuperGlue through examples, demonstrations of a prototype implementation, and a comparison-based evaluation with conventional programming languages.

Speaker Details

Sean McDirmid is a student at the University of Utah who is currently finishing up his Ph.D. in computer science under the supervision of Wilson Hsieh. Sean is also an alumni of the University of Washington computer science department. Sean is interested in improving programming technology so programming can be less tedious and more fun. When not hacking code, Sean enjoys hiking, roller blading, and practicing Chinese.

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