Gilad Bracha
Encyclopedia
Gilad Bracha is a software engineer
, a co-author of the second and third editions of the Java
Language Specification, a major contributor to the second edition of the Java Virtual Machine
Specification, and the creator of the Newspeak
programming language
.
From 1997 to 2006, he worked at Sun Microsystems
as Computational Theologist and, as of 2005, Distinguished Engineer, on various aspects of the specification and implementation of Java. Following that, he was Distinguished Engineer at Cadence Design Systems
from 2006 to 2009, where he led a team of developers designing and implementing Newspeak. Between 1994 and 1997, he worked on the Smalltalk
system developed by Animorphic Systems, a company that was bought by Sun in 1997.
Bracha received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Utah
.
be made independent of choice of language; that a type system should be a module that can be "plugged" into a language as required. He believes this is advantageous, because what he calls mandatory type systems make languages less expressive and code more fragile. The requirement that types do not affect the semantics of the language is challenging to fulfill; for example, constructs like type-based overloading are disallowed.
Software engineer
A software engineer is an engineer who applies the principles of software engineering to the design, development, testing, and evaluation of the software and systems that make computers or anything containing software, such as computer chips, work.- Overview :...
, a co-author of the second and third editions of the Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
Language Specification, a major contributor to the second edition of the Java Virtual Machine
Java Virtual Machine
A Java virtual machine is a virtual machine capable of executing Java bytecode. It is the code execution component of the Java software platform. Sun Microsystems stated that there are over 4.5 billion JVM-enabled devices.-Overview:...
Specification, and the creator of the Newspeak
Newspeak (programming language)
Newspeak is a programming language and platform in the tradition of Smalltalk and Self being developed by a team led by Gilad Bracha. The platform includes an IDE, a GUI library, and standard libraries. Starting in 2006, Cadence Design Systems funded its development and employed the main...
programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
.
From 1997 to 2006, he worked at Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
as Computational Theologist and, as of 2005, Distinguished Engineer, on various aspects of the specification and implementation of Java. Following that, he was Distinguished Engineer at Cadence Design Systems
Cadence Design Systems
Cadence Design Systems, Inc is an electronic design automation software and engineering services company, founded in 1988 by the merger of SDA Systems and ECAD, Inc...
from 2006 to 2009, where he led a team of developers designing and implementing Newspeak. Between 1994 and 1997, he worked on the Smalltalk
Smalltalk
Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed, reflective programming language. Smalltalk was created as the language to underpin the "new world" of computing exemplified by "human–computer symbiosis." It was designed and created in part for educational use, more so for constructionist...
system developed by Animorphic Systems, a company that was bought by Sun in 1997.
Bracha received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
.
Pluggable type systems
It has been proposed by Bracha that choice of type systemType system
A type system associates a type with each computed value. By examining the flow of these values, a type system attempts to ensure or prove that no type errors can occur...
be made independent of choice of language; that a type system should be a module that can be "plugged" into a language as required. He believes this is advantageous, because what he calls mandatory type systems make languages less expressive and code more fragile. The requirement that types do not affect the semantics of the language is challenging to fulfill; for example, constructs like type-based overloading are disallowed.