Flexible and Efficient Implementation of Polymorphic Programming Languages

多态是现代强类型编程语言的关键特性，包括Ada、C++和ML。这个研究项目研究了一种实现多态的新方法，该方法基于将类型信息与多态函数的每次激活相关联，而不是与数据相关联。这种方法允许在运行时或链接时有效地利用类型信息，而不仅仅是在编译时。它使编译器能够从参数多态的源代码生成多态目标代码，同时仍然使用可以与其他软件组件共享的专用的、节省空间的数据格式。该方法还支持源语言以及开发和运行时环境中的各种强大的非参数特性。研究的重点将是生成原型编译器实现和语言扩展，这些实现和语言扩展可以使用性能基准进行评估。这项研究的基本目的是使多态程序更容易开发和集成到现有系统中，从而加速工商业用户和学术界对现代语言的接受。

Polymorphism is a key feature of modern, strongly-typed programming languages including Ada, C++, and ML. This research program investigates a new approach to implementing polymorphism, based on associating type information with each activation of a polymorphic function, rather than with data. This approach permits type information to be utilized effectively at runtime or link-time, not just at compile-time. It enables compilers to generate polymorphic object code from parametrically polymorphic source code, while still using specialized, space-efficient data formats that can be shared with other software components. The approach also supports a large variety of powerful non-parametric features in the source language and in the development and runtime environments. The focus of the research will be on generating prototype compiler implementations and language extensions, that can be evaluated using performance benchmarks. The underlying aim of the research is to make polymorphic programs easier to develop and to integrate into existing systems, thereby, hastening the acceptance of modern languages by industrial and commercial users as well as by academics.