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Derived values are values calculated from base values. They can be expressed in object-oriented languages by means of getters calculating the derived value, and in relational or logic databases by means of (materialized) views. However, switching to a different calculation strategy (for example caching) in object-oriented programming requires invasive code changes, and the databases limit expressiveness by disallowing recursive aggregation. In this paper, we present IceDust, a data modeling language for expressing derived attribute values without committing to a calculation strategy. IceDust provides three strategies for calculating derived values in persistent object graphs: Calculate-on-Read, Calculate-on-Write, and Calculate-Eventually. We have developed a path-based abstract interpretation that provides static dependency analysis to generate code for these strategies. Benchmarks show that different strategies perform better in different scenarios. In addition we have conducted a case study that suggests that derived value calculations of systems used in practice can be expressed in IceDust.
@InProceedings{harkes_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2016.11,
author = {Harkes, Daco C. and Groenewegen, Danny M. and Visser, Eelco},
title = {{IceDust: Incremental and Eventual Computation of Derived Values in Persistent Object Graphs}},
booktitle = {30th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2016)},
pages = {11:1--11:26},
series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
ISBN = {978-3-95977-014-9},
ISSN = {1868-8969},
year = {2016},
volume = {56},
editor = {Krishnamurthi, Shriram and Lerner, Benjamin S.},
publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
address = {Dagstuhl, Germany},
URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2016.11},
URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-61059},
doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2016.11},
annote = {Keywords: Incremental Computing, Data Modeling, Domain Specific Language}
}