Work

An Argument for the Practicality of Entity Component Systems as the Primary Data Structure for an Interpreter or Compiler

Year: 2025

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: In this paper, we examine how Entity Component Systems, a data structure that has been gaining popularity in game engines, can benefit compiler and interpreter design. ECS does not consistently provide the same performance benefits that games utilize it for; however, it does make writing optimization passes easier. Additionally, its dogmatic focus on simple Plain-Old-Data structures makes serialization much easier. These benefits do come at a memory cost, the severity of which we still need to compare against more mature language implementations.

Source: ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software (Onward!)

DOI: 10.1145/3759429.3762622

Authors: Joshua Dahl, Frederick C. Harris

Institution: University of Nevada, Reno

Language: English

Topic: Logic, programming, and type systems

Subfield: Artificial Intelligence

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: National Science Foundation

Awards: RII Track-1: Harnessing the Data Revolution for Fire Science, RII Track-2 FEC: Leveraging Big Data to Improve Prediction of Tick-Borne Disease Patterns and Dynamics, G8179720856