Methods Passed as Parameters in Java: A Pre-processing Approach

In this paper we investigate the possibility of adding higher order functionalities to Java, that is passing methods as parameters to other methods. The approach is based on a mechanism which offers a restricted, disciplined, form of function abstraction but suitable to the integration of high order and Object Oriented programming. We discuss how the expressive power of the language is increased. A new syntax is introduced for formal and actual parameters, hence the paper shows an implementation of the extentions based on a preprocessing technique tha maps programs of the extended language into programs of ordinary Java