Run-time Modification of the Class Hierachy in a Live Java Development Environment

Class hierarchy design is central to object-oriented software development. However, it is sometimes difficult for developers to anticipate all the implications of a design until implementation is underway. To support experimentation with different designs, we extend prior work on live development environments to allow run-time modification of the class hierarchy. The result is a more fluid object-oriented development process, in which immediate feedback from the executing program can be used to guide hierarchy design. This thesis presents a framework and developer support for run-time modification of class inheritance relations in JPie, a live visual programming environment for Java. Most notably, the framework supports class reloading without modification of the Java Virtual Machine. Thesis Advisor: Kenneth Goldman Type of Report: Other Department of Computer Science & Engineering Washington University in St. Louis Campus Box 1045 St. Louis, MO 63130 ph: (314) 935-6160 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING RUN-TIME MODIFICATION OF THE CLASS HIERARCHY IN A LIVE JAVA DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT