Implementation of hot reloading in compiled programming languages

D.V. Shcherbak, K.A. Zhereb

Abstract


Hot reloading is a powerful software developing tool which allows the programmer to make changes to the codebase, and see those changes be applied to the program while it is running. This feature is naturally easy to implement in interpreted programming languages, such as Python, JavaScript and Ruby. This feature is highly demanded in compiled languages as well, because it allows to write and debug programs much faster and simpler, without the need to recompile the whole project to test out new functionality. It is especially useful when working on user interface or investigating problems that require the program in a specific state, which is hard or time consuming to reproduce. This paper explores existing approaches to solving this problem in compiled languages. We take a look at approaches used in languages with additional runtime, such as Java and C#, and explore languages which are compiled to native binaries, such as C++, Rust and Zig. We also discuss current challenges that arise with this technology, and what solutions are possible in new generations of programming languages.

Prombles in programming 2026; 2: 77-86


Keywords


hot reloading; hot swapping; dynamic software updates; dynamic library reload; runtime code patching; programming languages

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References


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