Literature on Embedded Dynamic Languages

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jbsnyder jbsnyder
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Literature on Embedded Dynamic Languages

Hi -

I was recently talking with my advisor about eLua and related concepts  
of using dynamic languages in embedded contexts, and he asked if there  
was any literature out there on the subject.  I've run across a few  
related things here and there, but I was wondering if anyone here knew  
of any particularly good articles or papers about the topic?  Perhaps  
something that isn't necessarily about a particular piece of software  
or hardware but hits on some of the conceptual and practical advantages.

The natural response to this question, if the answer is no: why hasn't  
this been written?  :-)

--
James Snyder
Biomedical Engineering
Northwestern University
[hidden email]
http://fanplastic.org/key.txt
ph: (847) 448-0386


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Jesus Alvarez Jesus Alvarez
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Re: Literature on Embedded Dynamic Languages

A search in Google Scholar lists several hundred references. Some examples
are listed below.

Regards,
Jesus Alvarez
----------
Gay, D. Levis, P. von Behren, R. Welsh, M. Brewer, E. Culler, D.
The nesC Language: A Holistic Approach to Networked Embedded Systems
ACM SIGPLAN NOTICES, 2003, VOL 38; PART 5, pages 1-11

Adam Dunkels
A low-overhead script language for tiny networked embedded systems
Swedish institute of computer science, 2006.
SICS technical report, T2006:15

Alan Burns; Andrew J Wellings
Real-time systems and programming languages, Second Edition [Book]
Addison-Wesley, 1996.

Paul Hudak
Building domain-specific embedded languages
ACM Computing Surveys
Volume 28 ,  Issue 4es  (December 1996)

Richard E. Haskell and  Darrin Hanna
Implementing a Forth Engine Microcontroller on a Xilinx FPGA
IEEE Student Supplement May 2000

Ito, S.A.   Carro, L.   Jacobi, R.P.  
Making Java work for microcontroller applications
Design & Test of Computers, IEEE
Sep-Oct 2001, Volume: 18,  Issue: 5

Jason Hill, Robert Szewczyk, Seth Hollar, David Culler, Kristofer Pister
System architecture directions for networked sensors
ACM SIGPLAN Notices
Volume 35 ,  Issue 11  (November 2000)

Lee, E.A.
What's ahead for embedded software?
California Univ., Berkeley, CA;
Computer
Sep 2000, Volume: 33,  Issue: 9

R. A. Brooks and C. Rosenberg
L - a common lisp for embedded systems
Proceedings of the Lisp Vendors and Users Conference, 1995

De Michell, G.   Gupta, R.K.
Hardware/software co-design
Proceedings of the IEEE
Mar 1997, Volume: 85,  Issue: 3


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Re: Literature on Embedded Dynamic Languages

In reply to this post by jbsnyder
Thanks guys for all the replies.  I think those papers cover some of the aspects of what I'm looking for (and I've run across some of them in previous searches), but what I'm looking for is more of a review paper or overview/motivation paper.

The Schultz paper gets at some of this, but Dunkels' paper "A low-overhead script language for tiny networked embedded systems" gets closer to the dynamic language issue.  I'm thinking perhaps that some sort of paper should be put together that does at least the following:
1. Talks about the state of the art in terms of dynamic language environments out there (eLua, PyMite/Python on a Chip, SCript, etc..)
2. Clearly outlines some of the advantages of using dynamic languages on embedded devices with use cases
3. Talks about concerns, like overhead, that cause a lot of people to dismiss the use of these types of tools.

I think the advantages of dynamic languages are pretty readily apparent to those that use them, but I get the sense (anecdotal) that people, especially embedded developers, would disregard dynamic languages even as a possibility where they might find some benefit from their use.

I'm not sure whether this sort of thing will only get an academic audience drawn in, but surely it wouldn't be a bad thing.  I would guess that anything that draws in mindshare would be beneficial.

Any thoughts?  


Another thing I ran across that's tangential, but interesting, is Mike Pall's post on the reasons one might want to use Lua on cell phones:
http://lua-users.org/lists/lua-l/2007-11/msg00248.html

-jsnyder

----- "Dean Hall" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> This record from my bibtex db shows that there is an ACM conference  
> for languages on embedded systems.  Might be a good source to search
>
> for "dynamic."
>
> !!Dean
>
>
> @inproceedings{Schultz:2003,
> Abstract = {The production of embedded systems is continuously  
> increasing, but developing reusable software for such systems is  
> notoriously difficult, in particular in the case of low-end embedded
>
> systems based on 16-bit or 8-bit processors. We have developed a  
> compilation system for executing Java byte code on low-end embedded  
> systems, and we demonstrate how this system permits ob ject-oriented
>
> programming techniques to be used on devices with only a few hundred
>
> bytes of RAM and a few kilobytes of ROM.
>
> We analyze the execution overheads of using ob ject-oriented  
> programming on low-end embedded systems. Based on the conclusion that
>
> memory consumption is the ma jor obstacle, we show how the  
> configuration features and optimizations integrated into our compiler
>
> can be used to significantly reduce memory requirements. In  
> particular, we use a novel approach based on Java interfaces to  
> control integration of Java programs with the hardware, and  
> demonstrate how aggressive whole-program optimization can  
> significantly reduce the size of the compiled program.},
> Author = {Ulrik Pagh Schultz and Kim Burgaard and Flemming Gram  
> Christensen and J{\o}rgen Lindskov Knudsen},
> Booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2003 Conference on Languages,  
> Compilers, and Tools for Embedded Systems},
> Date-Added = {2007-03-25 15:15:20 -0500},
> Date-Modified = {2009-04-01 15:07:47 -0500},
> Editor = {ACM},
> Keywords = {embedded, java, language, interface},
> Month = {Jun},
> Publisher = {ACM},
> Title = {Compiling Java for Low-End Embedded Systems},
> Year = {2003},
> }
>
> On Apr 21, 2009, at 19:08 , James Snyder wrote:
>
> > Hi -
> >
> > I was recently talking with my advisor about eLua and related  
> > concepts of using dynamic languages in embedded contexts, and he  
> > asked if there was any literature out there on the subject.  I've  
> > run across a few related things here and there, but I was wondering
>
> > if anyone here knew of any particularly good articles or papers  
> > about the topic?  Perhaps something that isn't necessarily about a
>
> > particular piece of software or hardware but hits on some of the  
> > conceptual and practical advantages.
> >
> > The natural response to this question, if the answer is no: why  
> > hasn't this been written?  :-)
> >
> > --
> > James Snyder
> > Biomedical Engineering
> > Northwestern University
> > [hidden email]
> > http://fanplastic.org/key.txt
> > ph: (847) 448-0386
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Elua-dev mailing list
> > [hidden email]
> > https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/elua-dev
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