Specialization Patterns






Java, optimization


Design patterns offer numerous advantages for 
software development, but can introduce inefficiency into 
the finished program. Program specialization can eliminate 
such overheads, but is most effective when 
targeted by the user to specific bottlenecks. 
Consequently, we propose to consider program specialization 
and design patterns as complementary concepts. On 
the one hand, program specialization can optimize 
object-oriented programs written using design patterns. On 
the other hand, design patterns provide information 
about the program structure that can guide 
specialization. Concretely, we propose specialization patterns, which 
describe how to apply program specialization to 
optimize uses of design patterns. In this 
paper, we analyze the specialization opportunities provided 
by specific uses of design patterns. Based 
on the analysis of each design pattern, 
we define the associated specialization pattern. These 
specialization opportunities can be declared straightforwardly using 
the specialization classes framework, developed in earlier 
work. Our experiments show that such specialization 
leads to significant performance improvements.