An existing component-oriented software system that is based on a platform-independent software distribution format will be augmented by a dynamic re-optimizer. The existing system already employs load-time code generation that happens in a single burst and puts compilation speed ahead of code quality, so that program execution can commence immediately. The additional re-optimizer will improve this situation by continually re-generating the object code of all active software components in the background, applying aggressive intermodular optimization techniques. Hence, it will combine a collection of independently compiled and distributed software components into a single, fully cross-optimized, quasi- monolithic code image, and then supplant the currently executing version of the code by the newly generated image. Re- optimization will be guided by run-time profiling data, so that successive re-optimizations will adapt to shifting usage patterns. Dynamic code generation will enable component- oriented systems to match or even surpass the efficiency of statically optimized software, in spite of being extensible at run-time. Concurrently with this research, a new upper-division undergraduate course sequence on language implementation will be developed.***
