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Variables and parameters as references and containers

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  • Most designers of object-based languages adopt a reference model of variables without explicit justification, despite its wide ranging consequences. This paper argues that the traditional container model of variables is more efficient than the reference model, nearly as flexible, and more appropriate to parallel and distributed systems. The topics addressed are object lifetime and its implications for storage management, dynamic typing and its implications for object representation, aliasing and its implications for interference between operations, parameter passing and its implications for communication, and sharing and its implications for contention. We present our experience with the container model in a prototype parallel language. Neither model is always better than the other, and the choice of model should not be left to default.
  • Computing Reviews Categories and Subject Descriptors: D.3.2 [Programming Lan­guages]: Language Classifications — concurrent, distributed and parallel languages; object-oriented languages; D.3.3 [Programming Languages]: Language Constructs and Features — concurrent programming structures; data types and structures; dynamic storage management; procedures, func­tions, and subroutines
  • Keywords: object-based programming languages, reference variables, container variables, reference parameters, container parameters, variable lifetime, object lifetime, dynamic typing, static typing, dynamic allocation, static allocation, garbage collection, variable aliasing, parameter passing, communication, sharing, contention, parallelism, concurrency, distribution, Matroshka, Natasha
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