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MJ: a rational module system for Java and its applications

Authors:

David F. Bacon,

Chet MurthyAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 38, Issue 11

Pages 241 - 254

https://doi.org/10.1145/949343.949326

Published: 26 October 2003 Publication History

Abstract

While Java provides many software engineering benefits, it lacks a coherent module system and instead provides only packages (which are primarily a name space mechanism) and classloaders (which are very low-level). As a result, large Java applications suffer from unexpected interactions between independent components, require complex CLASSPATH definitions, and are often extremely complex to install and maintain. We have implemented a module system for Java called MJ that is implemented with class loaders, but provides a much higher-level interface. High-level properties can be specified in a module definition and are enforced by the module system as new modules are loaded. To experimentally validate the ability of MJ to properly handle the complex module inter-relationships found in large Java server systems, we replaced the classloader mechanisms of Apache Tomcat 4.1.18 [27] with 30 MJ modules. The modified Tomcat is functionally identical to the original, but requires no CLASSPATH definitions, and will operate correctly even if user code loads a different version of a module used by Tomcat, such as the Xerces XML parser [31]. Furthermore, by making a small change to the Java core libraries enabled by MJ, we obtained a 30% performance improvement in a servlet microbenchmark.

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Cited By

Jezek KDietrich JBrada P(2018)How Java APIs break - An empirical studyInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2015.02.01465:C(129-146)Online publication date: 30-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.infsof.2015.02.014
Dietrich JJezek KBrada P(2018)What Java developers know about compatibility, and why this mattersEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-015-9389-121:3(1371-1396)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-015-9389-1
Dietrich JJezek KBrada P(2014)Broken promises: An empirical study into evolution problems in Java programs caused by library upgrades2014 Software Evolution Week - IEEE Conference on Software Maintenance, Reengineering, and Reverse Engineering (CSMR-WCRE)10.1109/CSMR-WCRE.2014.6747226(64-73)Online publication date: Feb-2014
https://doi.org/10.1109/CSMR-WCRE.2014.6747226
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

MJ: a rational module system for Java and its applications
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language features
        Modules / packages
      2. Language types

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGPLAN Notices

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 38, Issue 11

Special Issue: Proceedings of the OOPSLA '03 conference

November 2003

417 pages

ISSN:0362-1340

EISSN:1558-1160

DOI:10.1145/949343

Issue’s Table of Contents

OOPSLA '03: Proceedings of the 18th annual ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object-oriented programing, systems, languages, and applications
October 2003
430 pages
ISBN:1581137125
DOI:10.1145/949305
Conference Chair:
Ron Crocker
Motorola, Inc.
,
Program Chair:
Guy L. Steele
Sun Microsystems Laboratories

Copyright © 2003 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 26 October 2003

Published in SIGPLAN Volume 38, Issue 11

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Cited By

Jezek KDietrich JBrada P(2018)How Java APIs break - An empirical studyInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2015.02.01465:C(129-146)Online publication date: 30-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.infsof.2015.02.014
Dietrich JJezek KBrada P(2018)What Java developers know about compatibility, and why this mattersEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-015-9389-121:3(1371-1396)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-015-9389-1
Dietrich JJezek KBrada P(2014)Broken promises: An empirical study into evolution problems in Java programs caused by library upgrades2014 Software Evolution Week - IEEE Conference on Software Maintenance, Reengineering, and Reverse Engineering (CSMR-WCRE)10.1109/CSMR-WCRE.2014.6747226(64-73)Online publication date: Feb-2014
https://doi.org/10.1109/CSMR-WCRE.2014.6747226
Jezek KHoly LSlezacek ABrada P(2013)Software Components Compatibility Verification Based on Static Byte-Code AnalysisProceedings of the 2013 39th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications10.1109/SEAA.2013.58(145-152)Online publication date: 4-Sep-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/SEAA.2013.58
Sharma DLohchab S(2022)A Search-Based Approach on Metaheuristic Algorithm for Software Modularization to optimize Software Modularity2022 6th International Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication (ICCMC)10.1109/ICCMC53470.2022.9753800(1440-1450)Online publication date: 29-Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCMC53470.2022.9753800
Dann AHermann BBodden E(2021)ModGuard : Identifying Integrity & Confidentiality Violations in Java ModulesIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2019.293133147:8(1656-1667)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2019.2931331
Prajapati AChhabra J(2018)Optimizing Software Modularity with Minimum Possible VariationsJournal of Intelligent Systems10.1515/jisys-2018-023129:1(1135-1150)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2018
https://doi.org/10.1515/jisys-2018-0231
Damiani FPoetzsch-Heffter AWelsch YOssowski SLecca P(2012)A type system for checking specialization of packages in object-oriented programmingProceedings of the 27th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing10.1145/2245276.2232058(1737-1742)Online publication date: 26-Mar-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2245276.2232058
Kästner CApel SOstermann K(2011)The road to feature modularity?Proceedings of the 15th International Software Product Line Conference, Volume 210.1145/2019136.2019142(1-8)Online publication date: 21-Aug-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2019136.2019142
Bracha Gvon der Ahé PBykov VKashai YMaddox WMiranda E(2010)Modules as objects in newspeakProceedings of the 24th European conference on Object-oriented programming10.5555/1883978.1884007(405-428)Online publication date: 21-Jun-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1883978.1884007
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