From Eiffel to the Java Virtual Machine Adding a new language target to the EiffelStudio compiler Søren Engel,
[email protected] Supervisor Dr. Joseph R. Kiniry Thesis submitted to The IT University of Copenhagen for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Software Development August 2012 Abstract Previous attemps has been made towards translating and executing programs written in Eiffel on the Java platform, as described in Baumgartner [1]. However, the generated Java code has not been easy to use in terms of interoperability between the two languages, due to the restrictions of the Java language. Due to the evolution of the Java language, the work presented in this thesis examines whether it is possible to simplify the translation model of Eiffel to Java. In doing so, this thesis describes a refined translation model that leverages on some of the new features of the Java language, such as the invokedynamic bytecode instruction. Moreover, in order to verify the correctness of the proposed translation model, a description follows on how the translation model may be integrated into the existing EiffelStudio compiler, in terms extending the back-end to target the Java platform. In regards of simplicity, it was found that by using new language features of Java, the translation model of Eiffel to Java could be simplified to the extend that it solves the known issues found in the solution presented in Baumgartner [1]. In trying to integrate the translation model into the existing EiffelStudio compiler, it was found that no public documentation exists which described the internal structure of the EiffelStudio compiler.