Paper Info
Title
Weaving a debugging aspect into domain-specific language grammars
Abstract
A common trend in programming language specification is to generate various tools (e.g., compiler, editor, profiler, and debugger) from a grammar. In such a generative approach, it is desirable to have the definition of a programming language be modularized according to specific concerns specified in the grammar. However, it is often the case that the corresponding properties of the generated tools are scattered and tangled across the language specification. In this paper, separation of concerns within a programming language specification is demonstrated by considering debugging support within a domain-specific language (DSL). The paper first describes the use of AspectJ to weave the debugging semantics into the code created by a parser generator. The paper outlines several situations when the use of AspectJ is infeasible at separating language specification properties. To accommodate such situations, a second approach is presented that weaves the debugging support directly into a grammar specification using a program transformation engine. A case study for a simple DSL is presented to highlight the benefits of weaving across language specifications defined by grammars.
Year
DOI
Venue
2005
10.1145/1066677.1066986
SAC
Keywords
Field
DocType
debugging support,language specification,debugging semantics,grammar specification,programming language specification,debugging aspect,programming language,language specification property,domain-specific language grammar,case study,generative approach,domain-specific language,debugging,domain specific language,separation of concern
Specification language,Programming language,Programming language specification,Compiler-compiler,Computer science,Compiler,High-level programming language,Language Of Temporal Ordering Specification,First-generation programming language,Algorithmic program debugging
Conference
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
1-58113-964-0
20
1.32
References 
Authors
6
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Hui Wu1773.71
Jeff Gray2973116.57
Suman Roychoudhury316916.58
Marjan Mernik43256154.23