Dynamic Code Evolution for Java

The Dynamic Code Evolution Virtual Machine (DCE VM) is a modification of the Java HotSpot™ VM that allows unlimited redefinition of loaded classes at runtime. The current hotswapping mechanism of the HotSpot™ VM allows only changing method bodies. Our enhanced VM allows adding and removing fields and methods as well as changes to the super types of a class.

This is an open source project released under the GPL v2.0. For details including source code and binaries see here.

Publications

• Thomas Würthinger, Christian Wimmer, Lukas Stadler:
  Unrestricted and Safe Dynamic Code Evolution for Java
  Science of Computer Programming, Elsevier, 2011.
• Thomas Würthinger, Danilo Ansaloni, Walter Binder, Christian Wimmer, Hanspeter Mössenböck:
  Safe and Atomic Run-time Code Evolution and its Application to Dynamic AOP
  Annual ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications 2011 (OOPSLA'11), Portland Oregon, October 22-27, 2011, pp.825-841.
• Thomas Würthinger:
  Dynamic Code Evolution for Java
  PhD thesis, Johannes Kepler University Linz, April 2011.
• Thomas Würthinger, Christian Wimmer, Lukas Stadler:
  Dynamic Code Evolution for Java
  8th Intl. Conf. on the Principles and Practice of Programming in Java (PPPJ'10), Vienna, Austria, September 15-17, 2010.
• Thomas Würthinger, Walter Binder, Danilo Ansaloni, Philippe Moret, and Hanspeter Mössenböck:
  Applications of Enhanced Dynamic Code Evolution for Java in GUI Development and Dynamic Aspect-oriented Programming
  9th Intl. Conf. on Generative Programming and Component Engineering (GPCE'10), Eindhoven, The Netherlands, October 10-13, 2010.
• Thomas Würthinger, Walter Binder, Danilo Ansaloni, Philippe Moret, and Hanspeter Mössenböck:
  Improving Aspect-Oriented Programming with Dynamic Code Evolution in an Enhanced Java Virtual Machine
  7th ECOOP'10 Workshop on Reflection, AOP and Meta-Data for Software Evolution.