System and method for managing immutable objects

A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a first plurality of machine-readable instructions which when executed by one or more processors associated with one or more computing systems are adapted to cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

• monitoring new object construction;
• detecting construction of an object;
• determining a key for the object;
• looking the key up in a persistent storage system;
• when the key is found in the persistent storage system, loading the object form the persistent storage system;
• and
• when the key is not found in the persistent storage system:
• constructing the object;
• determining whether the object is immutable;
• and
• storing the object in the persistent storage system when the object is immutable.

A system for managing immutable objects, the system comprising:

• memory for storing an application server and a virtual machine;
• one or more processors coupled to the memory for executing the application server and the virtual machine;
• and
• a persistent storage system;
• wherein the virtual machine:
• monitors new object construction;
• detects construction of an object;
• determines a key for the object;
• looks the key up in the persistent storage system;
• when the key is found in the persistent storage system, loads the object from the persistent storage system;
• and
• when the key is not found in the persistent storage system:
• constructs the object;
• determines whether the object is immutable;
• and
• stores the object in the persistent storage system when the object is immutable;
• wherein to determine whether the object is immutable, the virtual machine:
• examines each primitive type data member of the object;
• examines each reference type constructor parameter of the object to determine whether the reference type constructor parameter is defensively copied;
• examines all function calls used by the object to determine whether the function calls preserve immutability;
• and
• recursively examines each reference type data member of the object.