StrategoXT is the combination of the
Stratego language for strategic programming with the XT bundle of transformation tools.
XT
XT is a bundle of transformation tools that combines Stratego, a
language for transformation of abstract syntax trees, with tools for
other aspects of program transformation. Stratego only deals with
transformation of programs represented by means of terms. Parsing and
pretty-printing is provided by the XT bundle of transformation tools,
which combines Stratego with the Syntax Definition Formalism
SDF and
the Generic Pretty-Printing Package
GPP.
ATerm Exchange Format
The foundation of XT is the ATerm format for exchange of structured
data such as abstract syntax trees. The format essentially consists of
first-order prefix terms. The format is supported by libraries for C,
Java, and Haskell, which support reading and writing of ATerms.
The Syntax Definition Formalism
SDF supports high-level, declarative,
and modular definition of the syntax of programming languages and data
formats. The formalism integrates the definition of lexical and
context-free syntax. The modularity of the formalism implies that it
is possible to easily
combine two languages or to
embed one
language into another.
Grammar Base
The SDF Grammar Base is a collection of syntax definitions for various
languages, including Java, C, SQL, COBOL, BibTex, Stratego, and SDF.
The Grammar Base will be distributed separately.
Parser Generation
The parser generator PGEN Generates parse tables from SDF definitions.
Scannerless Generalized-LR Parser
The scannerless generalized-LR parser
SGLR interprets parse tables
generated from SDF definitions. The parser does not use a separate
scanner; lexical analysis is included in the parsing process. The
parser can deal with arbitrary context-free grammars. Disambiguation
is based on filters in different stages of the parsing process.
Parse Tree Manipulation
XT provides several generic tools for parse tree manipulation such as
implosion of parse trees to abstract syntax trees.
Grammar Engineering
XT provides several tools for derivation of
SDF syntax definitions
from
YACC-like formalisms, which allows reusing existing grammars to a
large extent, and tools for improving syntax definitions.
Generic Pretty-Printing Package
Generic pretty-printing package (
GPP) is based on the
device-independent Box format and allows pretty-printing to different
targets; now supported are text, html and latex. Pretty-printers are
driven by pretty-print tables, which can be generated automatically
from syntax definitions.
Application Areas
XT is applicable in a many instances of program transformation
including
- Meta-programming
- Generative programming
- Compilation
- Implementation of domain-specific languages
- Language extensions
- Documentation generation
- Software visualization
Brochure
This two page brochure
summarizes the main features of Stratego and XT. Useful for distribution at conferences and such.
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EelcoVisser - 17 Nov 2002
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EelcoVisser - 04 Jun 2002