Abstract
This paper presents a modular and extensible style of language specification based on metacomputations. This style uses two monads to factor the static and dynamic parts of the specification, thereby staging the specification and achieving strong binding-time separation. Because metacomputations are defined in terms of monads, they can be constructed modularly and extensibly using monad transformers. A number of language constructs are specified: expressions, control-flow, imperative features, and block structure. Metacomputation-style specification lends itself to semantics-directed compilation, which we demonstrate by creating a modular compiler for a block-structured, imperative while language.
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Harrison, W.L., Kamin, S.N. (2000). Metacomputation-Based Compiler Architecture. In: Backhouse, R., Oliveira, J.N. (eds) Mathematics of Program Construction. MPC 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1837. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/10722010_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/10722010_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-67727-7
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