Hello, and happy new year to all !
I'm pleased to announce that I will hold a 90 minutes session at the
next ACCU conference in Oxford, April 2012.
The session's topic is given below:
Impact of Extensibility on Domain Specific Language Design and Implementation
Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are usually very different from the
general purpose language (GPL) in which the embedding application is
written. The need for designing a DSL as a completely new language often
comes from the lack of extensibility of the chosen GPL. By imposing a
rigid syntax, a set of predefined operators and data structures, the
traditional GPL approach leaves no choice but to implement a DSL as a
different language, with its own lexical and syntactic parser, semantic
analyzer and possibly its own brand new interpreter or even compiler.
Some GPLs, however, are extensible or customizable enough to let one
implement a DSL merely as either a subset or an extension of the
original language. While the end-user does not see a difference with the
traditional approach, the gain for the developer is substantial. Since
the DSL is now just another entry point for the same original GPL, there
is essentially only one application written in only one language to
maintain. Moreover, no specific language infrastructure (parser,
interpreter, compiler etc.) is required for the DSL anymore, since it is
simply expressed in terms of the original GPL.
The purpose of this presentation is to illustrate the most important
factors that make a language truly extensible, and to show how
extensibility impacts the process of DSL design and implementation.
--
Resistance is futile. You will be jazzimilated.
Scientific site:
http://www.lrde.epita.fr/~didier
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