Object-oriented Languages Compiler Baojian Hua [email protected].

Object-oriented Languages

CompilerBaojian Hua

[email protected]

OOP So far, we’ve covered most C features

expression, statement, function Object-oriented languages are more and m

ore popular due to the industry push this time: compile the class-based OO lang’

Roadmap: class and objects inheritance & virtual functions RTTI & reflection next time: exception

Class “Point”class P2{ int x; int y;

P2 (int x, int y) { this.x = x; this.y = y; }

void print () { println (this.x, this.y); }}

Compiling to C// Close all functions:class P2{ int x; int y;

P2 (P2 this, int x, int y) { this.x = x; this.y = y; }

void print (P2 this) { println (this.x, this.y); }}

Compiling to C// Hoisting:class P2{ int x; int y;}

P2 (P2 this, int x, int y) { this.x = x; this.y = y;}

void print (P2 this) { println (this.x, this.y);}

Compiling to C// In C’s syntax:struct P2{ int x; int y;};

typedef struct P2 *P2;

P2 (P2 this, int x, int y) { this->x = x; this->y = y;}

x

y

P2

Client Code// Client code:P2 p = new P2 (3, 4);p.print ();

// compiles to:P2 p = malloc (sizeof (*p));P2(p, 3, 4);print(p);

x

y

P2

Moral Difference with C?

class = struct + function code object = a region of memory in mem (malloc?)

In history, some compilers compile OO to C e.g., Bjarne Stroustrup et.al’s Cfront

But how does this work with other features? inheritance dynamic dispatch

Inheritance// Single inheritance:class P3 extends P2{ int z;

P3 (int x, int y, int z) {…}

// Note: this is not named “print”. Why?void print3d () {

println (this.x, this.y, this.z); }}

Prefixing// A technique called prefixing:class P3 extends P2{ int x; int y; int z; void print () { … }

void print3d () { … }}

Compiling to Cstruct P2{ int x; int y;};struct P3{ int x; int y; int z;};

void P2_print (P2 this) {…}void P3_print (P2 this) {…}void print3d (P3 this) {…}

x

y

P2

x

y

P3

z Q: can we put “z” before “x” or “y”?

Virtual functionsclass P2

{

…;

void print () {…}

}

class P3 extends P2

{

…;

void print () {…}

}

Dynamic dispatchclass P2

{

…;

void print () {…}

}

class P3 extends P2

{

…;

void print () {…}

}

P2 p;

p = new P2 ();

p.print ();

p = new P3 ();

p.print ();

Compiling dynamic dispatch Variable’s compile-time type is insufficien

t to determine the specific function to be called

We need store in the object the information required

The data structure for this purpose is the famous virtual function table or vtable

Function call becomes an indirection via vtable

Vtableclass P2{ …; void print () {…}}

class P3 extends P2{ …; void print () {…}}

vptrx

y

P2_print

vptrx

y

P3_print

z

General Schemeclass A

{

int x1;

…;

int xn;

void f1 (…){}

…

void fn (…){}

};

vptrx1

…

A_f1

xn

…

A_fn

vtable

Client Code// Client code:P2 p;p = new P2 (3, 4);p.print ();

// compiles to:P2 p;p = malloc (sizeof (*p)); // how many bytes?P2(p, 3, 4);((p->vptr)[0]) (p); // where’s “print”?

vptrx

y

P2_print

p

Client Code// Client code:P2 p;p = new P2 (3, 4);p.print ();p = new P3 (7, 8, 9);p.print ();

vptrx

y

P2_print

p

vptr7

8

9

P3_print

Moral Dynamic dispatch is polymorphism:

subtyping poly’ No free lunch:

extra space to store vtable dynamic dispatch via indirection (slow?) “All problems in computer science can be solve

d by another level of indirection!” -- Butler Lampson

OO = Pointer + Virtual Functions

RTTI & reflection RTTI: Run Time Type Identification

Ability to identify the type (class) of an object at runtime

Reflection: more powerful, can (mostly) do anything at runtime

What are they used for? Type identification Inheritance hierarchy string based method invocation exception handling …

RTTIP2 p;

…;

Class c = p.getClass ();

println (c.getClassName());

vptrx

y

P2_print

meta name“P2”

…

…

ReflectionP2 p;

…;

Class c = p.getClass ();

println (c.getClassName());

c.getMethod (“print”, null);

vptrx

y

P2_print

meta name“P2”

“print”, p

…

Case study:Visual studio C++ (Microsoft)

Multiple Inheritance

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