Enhancing Support for Metaprogramming

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Given the ever-increasing importance of software, it is imperative that software developers be provided with techniques, theories, and tools that can help support these continuing advances. One programming methodology with immense potential in this regard is metaprogramming, the process of writing programs that read, process, and generate other programs. Metaprogramming has clear potential to significantly improve software by reducing development time, increasing software quality, and increasing software flexibility. Unfortunately, metaprogramming has simply been too complex for most mainstream software developers to master. To address this, my long term research goal is to expand the applicability of metaprogramming by making metaprograms easier to write, optimize, and maintain. This research will advance the understanding, methodology, and technology of metaprogramming, and produce highly qualified graduates who have mastery of state-of-the-art software development techniques and are poised to lead ongoing advances in research and application of this vital and high-impact research area. My students and I will make metaprogramming easier to use for high-performance software by developing new analysis techniques that help optimizing compilers speed up metaprograms. We will also improve the quality of metaprograms by extending safety checking theories to support metaprograms that use re-assignable variables. Finally, we will increase the flexibility and accessibility of metaprograms by extending the C++ language with developer-friendly features to generate custom-tailored data structures at compile-time. This research will contribute to more intelligent programming practices, invite a more efficient means of building bug-free code, and ultimately accelerate the science behind the software revolution that is transforming society. Two of the three projects will produce new programming tools that generalist developers can immediately use to improve their software development. The Canadian software development industry will benefit from the techniques, technology, and highly-qualified personnel produced by this research.