Thorn—Robust, Concurrent, Extensible Scripting on the JVM
Thorn—Robust, Concurrent, Extensible Scripting on the JVM Bard Bloom1, John Field1, Nathaniel Nystrom2∗, Johan Ostlund¨ 3, Gregor Richards3, Rok Strnisaˇ 4, Jan Vitek3, Tobias Wrigstad5† 1 IBM Research 2 University of Texas at Arlington 3 Purdue University 4 University of Cambridge 5 Stockholm University Abstract 1. Introduction Scripting languages enjoy great popularity due to their sup- Scripting languages are lightweight, dynamic programming port for rapid and exploratory development. They typically languages designed to maximize short-term programmer have lightweight syntax, weak data privacy, dynamic typing, productivity by offering lightweight syntax, weak data en- powerful aggregate data types, and allow execution of the capsulation, dynamic typing, powerful aggregate data types, completed parts of incomplete programs. The price of these and the ability to execute the completed parts of incomplete features comes later in the software life cycle. Scripts are programs. Important modern scripting languages include hard to evolve and compose, and often slow. An additional Perl, Python, PHP, JavaScript, and Ruby, plus languages weakness of most scripting languages is lack of support for like Scheme that are not originally scripting languages but concurrency—though concurrency is required for scalability have been adapted for it. Many of these languages were orig- and interacting with remote services. This paper reports on inally developed for specialized domains (e.g., web servers the design and implementation of Thorn, a novel program- or clients), but are increasingly being used more broadly. ming language targeting the JVM. Our principal contribu- The rising popularity of scripting languages can be at- tions are a careful selection of features that support the evo- tributed to a number of key design choices.
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