Multilanguage programming: an automatic-type-mapping approach

Abstract

The data type correspondence problem arises when one tries to interconnect, within a single program, modules written in different languages and therefore within the framework of different type systems. An interconnection model is proposed which hides details such as interlanguage data type mappings and low level communications, which are irrelevant or confusing to most programmers. Using this model, the authors develop an automated solution to the problem of finding, for a given type in a given programming language, the corresponding type in another programming language. They compare this approach with others which have been proposed in the literature, and discuss a prototype implementation in detail.<>