Delegating compiler objects: modularity and reusability in language engineering

The application domain of compiler techniques is changing. Whereas previously compiler techniques were primarily used for the construction of compilers for general purpose languages, now these techniques are increasingly often used for the construction of application domain languages and extensible language models. However, the traditional compiler techniques suffer from problems of complexity, maintainability, reusability and extensibility and new approaches are needed. In this paper, we describe the concept of delegating compiler objects (dcos), a novel approach to compiler construction that provides structural decomposition and reusability of compiler specifications. Our extensible language, the layered object model, is used to illustrate the advantages of the dco approach for compiler construction. 1 Introduction Although the way software systems are constructed is changing constantly, many underlying principles have remained constant. One example of such a principle is the use of...