Code-on-Demand and Code Adaptation for Mobile Computing

Abstract

Most commercial software packages present the user with a monolithic software program bundling many functions and features. The user pays for the unneeded features, and mobile devices have insufficient resources to cope. We introduce Sparkle, a proof-of-concept, mobile middleware for code adaptation using the code-on-demand design paradigm. To allow as many useful applications as possible to run on a mobile device, we propose changing the software development paradigm from monolithic chunks to small functionalities which can be dynamically downloaded on demand to the mobile device, and be disposed of afterward. An application could have unlimited functionalities which are selected on-the-fly based on the context.