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Reflection Support by Means of Template Metaprogramming

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Generative and Component-Based Software Engineering (GCSE 2001)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2186))

Abstract

The C++ language has only a limited runtime type information system, which doesn’t provide full reflection capabilities. We present a general mechanism to support reflection, exploiting template metaprogramming techniques. Two solutions are presented: a static one where metaclass information is only available at compile time to produce class specific code; and a dynamic one where metaclass objects exist at runtime. As a case study of technique we show how to build an object interface to relational database tables. By just annotating a class definition with meta information, such as storage attributes or index properties of fields, a programmer can define objects that can be stored, fetched or searched in a database table. This approach has been used in building a high-performance, full text search engine.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Informatica, corso Italia 40, I-56125, Pisa, Italy

    Giuseppe Attardi & Antonio Cisternino

Authors
  1. Giuseppe Attardi
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  2. Antonio Cisternino
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Department of Mathematics and Computing Science, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 800, 9700, AV, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Jan Bosch

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Attardi, G., Cisternino, A. (2001). Reflection Support by Means of Template Metaprogramming. In: Bosch, J. (eds) Generative and Component-Based Software Engineering. GCSE 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2186. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44800-4_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44800-4_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42546-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44800-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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