Abstract syntax written using prefix constructor terms can become rather unreadable when patterns become large. Therefore it is attractrive to write
transformation rules using the concrete syntax of
the object language instead of its abstract syntax. For example, to write
PlusZero :
|[ e + 0 ]| -> |[ e ]|
instead of
PlusZero :
Plus(e, Int(0)) -> e
Starting with
StrategoRelease08 concrete syntax is supported by Stratego. For a full account of this new feature and its implementation see the paper
Meta Programming with Concrete Object Syntax.
The techniques for handling embedded syntax in a meta-language have now been generalized and are
implemented in the
parse-cs tool in the
concrete syntax package in the
StrategoXT distribution.
This tool has been used in the embedding of concrete syntax in Prolog implemented in the
Prolog tools
package.
--
EelcoVisser - 28 Nov 2003
CategoryConcreteObjectSyntax