A Domain Specific Transformation Language to Bridge Concrete and Abstract Syntax [chapter]

Adolfo Sánchez-Barbudo Herrera, Edward D. Willink, Richard F. Paige
2016 Lecture Notes in Computer Science  
Existing language workbenches, such as Xtext, support bridging the gap between the concrete syntax (CS) and abstract syntax (AS) of textual languages. However, the specification artefacts -i.e. grammars -are not sufficiently expressive to completely model the required CS-to-AS mapping, when it requires complex name resolution or multiway mappings. This paper proposes a new declarative domain specific transformation language (DSTL) which provides support for complex CS-to-AS mappings, including
more » ... eatures for name resolution and CS disambiguation. We justify the value of and need for a DSTL, analyse the challenges for using it to support mappings for complex languages such as Object Constraint Language, and demonstrate how it addresses these challenges. We present a comparison between the new DSTL and the state-of-the-art Gra2Mol, including performance data showing a significant improvement in terms of execution time.
doi:10.1007/978-3-319-42064-6_1 fatcat:stukajhi55cz5khlu5mrg4dvoa