Class Hierarchy Specialization

Class libraries are generally designed with an emphasis on versatility and extensibility. Applications that use a library typically exercise only part of the library’s functionality. As a result, objects created by the application may contain unused members. We present an algorithm that specializes aclass hierarchywith respect to its usage in a program P. That is, the algorithm analyzes the member accesspatterns for P’s variables, and creates distinct classes for variables that accessdifferent members. Class hierarchy specialization reduces object size,and is hence primarily a space optimization. However, execution time may also be reduced through reduced object creation/destruction time, and caching/paging effects.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1997
• Where: OOPSLA
• Authors: Frank Tip, Peter F. Sweeney
• Keywords: Aclass Hierarchywith Respect, Class Hierarchy Specialization, Class Libraries, OOPSLA 1997, Security Privacy