Modular language implementation in Rascal - experience report
Journal article, 2015
All software evolves, and programming languages and programming language tools are no exception. And just like in ordinary software construction, modular implementations can help ease the process of changing a language implementation and its dependent tools. However, the syntactic and semantic dependencies between language features make this a challenging problem. In this paper we detail how programming languages can be implemented in a modular fashion using the RASCAL meta-programming language. RASCAL supports extensible definition of concrete syntax, abstract syntax and operations on concrete and abstract syntax trees like matching, traversal and transformation. As a result, new language features can be added without having to change existing code. As a case study, we detail our solution of the LDTA'11 Tool Challenge: a modular implementation of OBERON-0, a relatively simple imperative programming language. The approach we sketch can be applied equally well to the implementation of domain-specific languages.
Language engineering
Compiler generators
Language workbench
Meta-programming
Modularity
Author
B. Basten
Stichting Centrum voor Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI)
J. van den Bos
Netherlands Forensic Institute
M. Hills
East Carolina University
P. Klint
Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA)
Stichting Centrum voor Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI)
A. Lankamp
Xebia
B. Lisser
Stichting Centrum voor Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI)
Atze van der Ploeg
Chalmers, Computer Science and Engineering (Chalmers), Software Technology (Chalmers)
T. van der Storm
Stichting Centrum voor Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI)
Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA)
J. Vinju
Stichting Centrum voor Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI)
Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA)
Science of Computer Programming
0167-6423 (ISSN)
Vol. 114 7-19Subject Categories
Software Engineering
DOI
10.1016/j.scico.2015.11.003