Flick: A Flexible, Optimizing IDL Compiler

Interface definition language (IDL) compilers generate "stub functions" that provide separate communicating processes with the abstraction of local object invocation or procedure call. Unfortunately, these compilers have not kept pace with recent advances in fast network technologies and component-based software design. Typical IDL compilers do little optimization because they assume that interprocess communication is an inherent bottleneck. Moreover, typical IDL compilers are "rigid" and limited to supporting only a single IDL, a fixed mapping onto a target language, and a narrow range of data encodings and transport mechanisms. Flick, our new IDL compiler, addresses these problems. Flick applies concepts from general programming language compilers to bring both flexibility and optimization to the domain of IDL compilation. Flick consists of three distinct stages which manipulate and communicate through flexible intermediate representations. Through these representations Flick suppor..