Rapidly prototyping implementation infrastructure of domain specific languages: a semantics-based approach

Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) are high level languages designed for solving problems in a particular domain, and have been suggested as means for developing reliable software systems. However, designing of a domain specific language is a difficult task. The design of a domain specific language will evolve as it is used more and more and experienced is gained by its designers. Being able to rapidly develop the implementation infrastructure (interpreter, compiler, debugger, profiler, etc.) of a domain specific language is thus of utmost importance so that as the language evolves, the implementation infrastructure can keep pace. In this paper we present a framework for automatically generating interpreters, compilers, debuggers, and profilers from semantic specification of a domain specific language. We illustrate our approach via the SCR language, a language used by the US defense department for developing control systems.

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