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

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.