Surrendering to the need for speed while maintaining visibility in adverse code conditions

Abstract

Speed is a necessity in low-level systems software. Mechanisms through which it is achieved are often at odds with well-known practices in terms of evolution and maintenance tasks. Ironically, though these mechanisms often create adverse code conditions, in practice they thinly veil structural support associated with language mechanisms for both Object-Oriented (OO) and Aspect-Oriented (AO) programming. This paper argues for aggressive and comprehensive tools designed to provide support necessary for developers to take control in this high-speed, low-level systems domain. Through these tools, we envision evolving highly configurable single-source systems according to high-level structural principles, without imposing any speed limits on their underlying code.