Hand-Writing Program Generator Generators

In this paper we argue that hand-writing a program generator generator has a number of advantages compared to generating a program generator generator by self-application of a partial evaluator. We show the basic principles of how to construct a program generator generator by presenting a program generator generator for a skeletal language, and we argue that it is not more difficult to use the direct approach than the indirect approach. Moreover, we report on some promising experiments made with a prototype implementation of a program generator generator for most of the Standard ML Core Language. To the best of our knowledge, our prototype is the first succesfully implemented hand-written program generator generator for a statically typed language.

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