Linguistic Reflection

Learn about linguistic reflection!

linguistic reflection

the ability of a running program to generate new program fragments and to integrate these into its own execution

reflection

provide language structures that provide run time access to other language structures

common example of reflection

classes - instances of classes are objects, which can make classes themselves

different way to call a method 1

statically - obtain a reference and make the call in the code

different way to call a method 2

dynamically - obtain a meta object for the method and construct a call using that

dynamic loading

load a class whose type we didn’t know

benefit of linguistic reflection 1

system evolution - load new objects without recompiling and extend functionality of a running system

benefit of linguistic reflection 2

build a gui that shows the code, allow interactive method calls from an interface

drawbacks for linguistic reflection 1

code becomes more verbose, you have to deal with things that are usually handled by the compiler

drawbacks for linguistic reflection 2

late error detection

drawbacks for linguistic reflection 3

performance can be reduced

tradeoffs for reflection for components

generic, can call any method on any object we have a reference to, regardless of if its available at compile time