%0 Conference Paper %1 1508305 %A Frampton, Daniel %A Blackburn, Stephen M. %A Cheng, Perry %A Garner, Robin J. %A Grove, David %A Moss, J. Eliot B. %A Salishev, Sergey I. %B VEE '09: Proceedings of the 2009 ACM SIGPLAN/SIGOPS international conference on Virtual execution environments %C New York, NY, USA %D 2009 %I ACM %K Abstraction GC HighLevel LowLevel MMTk Optimization VM %P 81--90 %R http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1508293.1508305 %T Demystifying Magic: High-level Low-level Programming %U http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1508305 %X The power of high-level languages lies in their abstraction over hardware and software complexity, leading to greater security, better reliability, and lower development costs. However, opaque abstractions are often show-stoppers for systems programmers, forcing them to either break the abstraction, or more often, simply give up and use a different language. This paper addresses the challenge of opening up a high-level language to allow practical low-level programming without forsaking integrity or performance. The contribution of this paper is three-fold: 1) we draw together common threads in a diverse literature, 2) we identify a framework for extending high-level languages for low-level programming, and 3) we show the power of this approach through concrete case studies. Our framework leverages just three core ideas: extending semantics via intrinsic methods, extending types via unboxing and architectural-width primitives, and controlling semantics via scoped semantic regimes. We develop these ideas through the context of a rich literature and substantial practical experience. We show that they provide the power necessary to implement substantial artifacts such as a high-performance virtual machine, while preserving the software engineering benefits of the host language. %@ 978-1-60558-375-4

@inproceedings{1508305, abstract = {The power of high-level languages lies in their abstraction over hardware and software complexity, leading to greater security, better reliability, and lower development costs. However, opaque abstractions are often show-stoppers for systems programmers, forcing them to either break the abstraction, or more often, simply give up and use a different language. This paper addresses the challenge of opening up a high-level language to allow practical low-level programming without forsaking integrity or performance. The contribution of this paper is three-fold: 1) we draw together common threads in a diverse literature, 2) we identify a framework for extending high-level languages for low-level programming, and 3) we show the power of this approach through concrete case studies. Our framework leverages just three core ideas: extending semantics via intrinsic methods, extending types via unboxing and architectural-width primitives, and controlling semantics via scoped semantic regimes. We develop these ideas through the context of a rich literature and substantial practical experience. We show that they provide the power necessary to implement substantial artifacts such as a high-performance virtual machine, while preserving the software engineering benefits of the host language.}, added-at = {2010-01-18T14:37:16.000+0100}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, author = {Frampton, Daniel and Blackburn, Stephen M. and Cheng, Perry and Garner, Robin J. and Grove, David and Moss, J. Eliot B. and Salishev, Sergey I.}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/280573da6cc700a794fa3cf2b44cd4fe9/gron}, booktitle = {VEE '09: Proceedings of the 2009 ACM SIGPLAN/SIGOPS international conference on Virtual execution environments}, doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1508293.1508305}, interhash = {8760d6fbdafcb342eab5ef08fa081d35}, intrahash = {80573da6cc700a794fa3cf2b44cd4fe9}, isbn = {978-1-60558-375-4}, keywords = {Abstraction GC HighLevel LowLevel MMTk Optimization VM}, location = {Washington, DC, USA}, pages = {81--90}, publisher = {ACM}, timestamp = {2010-01-18T14:37:16.000+0100}, title = {Demystifying Magic: High-level Low-level Programming}, url = {http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1508305}, year = 2009 }