Language design for program manipulation

The design of procedural and object-oriented programming languages is considered with respect to how easily programs written in those languages can be formally manipulated. Current procedural languages such as Pascal, Modula-2 and Ada; generally support such program manipulations, except for some an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on software engineering 1992-01, Vol.18 (1), p.19-32
Main Authors: Merks, E.A.T., Dyck, J.M., Cameron, R.D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Applied sciences
Appropriate technology
Computer science
control theory
systems
Concrete
Data structures
Design
Exact sciences and technology
Instruments
Object oriented programming
PASCAL
Principles
Process design
Programming languages
Semantics
Software
Software engineering
Syntax
Synthesizers
Systems design
Systems development
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Summary:The design of procedural and object-oriented programming languages is considered with respect to how easily programs written in those languages can be formally manipulated. Current procedural languages such as Pascal, Modula-2 and Ada; generally support such program manipulations, except for some annoying anomalies and special cases. Three main areas of language design are identified as being of concern from a manipulation viewpoint: the interface between concrete and abstract syntax; the relationship between the abstract syntax and static semantics naming, scoping and typing; and the ability to express basic transformations (folding and unfolding). Design principles are suggested so that the problems identified for current languages can be avoided in the future.< >
ISSN:0098-5589
1939-3520
DOI:10.1109/32.120313