Late data layout: unifying data representation transformations

Abstract

Values need to be represented differently when interacting with certain language features. For example, an integer has to take an object-based representation when interacting with erased generics, although, for performance reasons, the stack-based value representation is better. To abstract over these implementation details, some programming languages choose to expose a unified high-level concept (the integer) and let the compiler choose its exact representation and insert coercions where necessary.