Embedding Languages Without Breaking Tools

Renggli, Lukas; Girba, Tudor; Nierstrasz, Oscar (2010). Embedding Languages Without Breaking Tools. In: D'Hondt, Theo (ed.) ECOOP '10: Object-Oriented Programming. 24th European Conference, Maribor, Slovenia, June 21-25, 2010. Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science: Vol. 6183 (pp. 380-404). Heidelberg: Springer Verlag 10.1007/978-3-642-14107-2_19

Text 10.1007%2F978-3-642-14107-2.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (9MB)

Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are increasingly used as embedded languages within general-purpose host languages. DSLs provide a compact, dedicated syntax for specifying parts of an application related to specialized domains. Unfortunately, such language extensions typically do not integrate well with the development tools of the host language. Editors, compilers and debuggers are either unaware of the extensions, or must be adapted at a non-trivial cost. We present a novel approach to embed DSLs into an existing host language by leveraging the underlying representation of the host language used by these tools. Helvetia is an extensible system that intercepts the compilation pipeline of the Smalltalk host language to seamlessly integrate language extensions. We validate our approach by case studies that demonstrate three fundamentally different ways to extend or adapt the host language syntax and semantics.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

1 since deposited on 04 Oct 2013
0 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item