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Software meta-language engineering and CBS

Peter Mosses Orcid Logo

Journal of Computer Languages, Volume: 50, Pages: 39 - 48

Swansea University Author: Peter Mosses Orcid Logo

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Abstract

The SLE conference series is devoted to the engineering principles of software languages: their design, their implementation, and their evolution. This paper is about the role of language specification in SLE. A precise specification of a software language needs to be written in a formal meta-langua...

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Published in: Journal of Computer Languages
ISSN: 25901184
Published: 2019
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa47984
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first_indexed 2018-12-18T20:01:22Z
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spelling v2 47984 2018-12-18 Software meta-language engineering and CBS 3f13b8ec315845c81d371f41e772399c 0000-0002-5826-7520 Peter Mosses Peter Mosses true false 2018-12-18 FGSEN The SLE conference series is devoted to the engineering principles of software languages: their design, their implementation, and their evolution. This paper is about the role of language specification in SLE. A precise specification of a software language needs to be written in a formal meta-language, and it needs to co-evolve with the specified language. Moreover, different software languages often have features in common, which should provide opportunities for reuse of parts of language specifications. Support for co-evolution and reuse in a meta-language requires careful engineering of its design.The author has been involved in the development of several meta-languages for semantic specification, including action semantics and modular variants of structural operational semantics (MSOS, I-MSOS). This led to the PLanCompS project, and to the design of its meta-language, CBS, for component-based semantics. CBS comes together with an extensible library of reusable components called ‘funcons’, corresponding to fundamental programming constructs. The main aim of CBS is to optimise co-evolution and reuse of specifications during language development, and to make specification of language semantics almost as straightforward as context-free syntax specification.The paper discusses the engineering of a selection of previous meta-languages, assessing how well they support co-evolution and reuse. It then gives an introduction to CBS, and illustrates significant features. It also considers whether other current meta-languages might also be used to define an extensible library of funcons for use in component-based semantics. Journal Article Journal of Computer Languages 50 39 48 25901184 semantics of programming languages, meta-languages, modularity 28 2 2019 2019-02-28 10.1016/j.jvlc.2018.11.003 COLLEGE NANME Science and Engineering - Faculty COLLEGE CODE FGSEN Swansea University 2023-06-23T15:47:00.7220741 2018-12-18T15:20:19.2234527 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Uncategorised Peter Mosses 0000-0002-5826-7520 1 0047984-11022019144837.pdf Mosses-final-twocolumn.pdf 2019-02-11T14:48:37.8430000 Output 611233 application/pdf Accepted Manuscript true 2020-07-30T00:00:00.0000000 Released under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License (CC-BY-NC-ND). true eng
title Software meta-language engineering and CBS
spellingShingle Software meta-language engineering and CBS
Peter Mosses
title_short Software meta-language engineering and CBS
title_full Software meta-language engineering and CBS
title_fullStr Software meta-language engineering and CBS
title_full_unstemmed Software meta-language engineering and CBS
title_sort Software meta-language engineering and CBS
author_id_str_mv 3f13b8ec315845c81d371f41e772399c
author_id_fullname_str_mv 3f13b8ec315845c81d371f41e772399c_***_Peter Mosses
author Peter Mosses
author2 Peter Mosses
format Journal article
container_title Journal of Computer Languages
container_volume 50
container_start_page 39
publishDate 2019
institution Swansea University
issn 25901184
doi_str_mv 10.1016/j.jvlc.2018.11.003
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
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description The SLE conference series is devoted to the engineering principles of software languages: their design, their implementation, and their evolution. This paper is about the role of language specification in SLE. A precise specification of a software language needs to be written in a formal meta-language, and it needs to co-evolve with the specified language. Moreover, different software languages often have features in common, which should provide opportunities for reuse of parts of language specifications. Support for co-evolution and reuse in a meta-language requires careful engineering of its design.The author has been involved in the development of several meta-languages for semantic specification, including action semantics and modular variants of structural operational semantics (MSOS, I-MSOS). This led to the PLanCompS project, and to the design of its meta-language, CBS, for component-based semantics. CBS comes together with an extensible library of reusable components called ‘funcons’, corresponding to fundamental programming constructs. The main aim of CBS is to optimise co-evolution and reuse of specifications during language development, and to make specification of language semantics almost as straightforward as context-free syntax specification.The paper discusses the engineering of a selection of previous meta-languages, assessing how well they support co-evolution and reuse. It then gives an introduction to CBS, and illustrates significant features. It also considers whether other current meta-languages might also be used to define an extensible library of funcons for use in component-based semantics.
published_date 2019-02-28T15:46:55Z
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