The metaXa project is discontinued. The experiences we gained during the metaXa project flow in our current project JX: The Flexible Operating System Architecture
General purpose architectures often cannot fulfil special requirements of applications or are providing only less optimal solutions. Therefore new software architectures are needed, which provide mechanisms for a cooperation between applications and an adaptable and extendable runtime or operating system. The Java architecture is a big step in the right direction but the step is not big enough.
We extended Java with a reflective metalevel architecture. Reflection is the capability of a system to reason about and act upon its own computation and adjust itself to changing conditions. Metaprogramming separates the adjusting mechanisms from the functionality of the program. It is even possible to formulate the metaprogram in a generic way and use it for arbitrary objects.