Incremental compilation and build systems for domain-specific languages
Project
Incremental compilation and build systems for domain-specific languages
Principal Investigator
Technical University Darmstadt
Oracle Principal Investigator
Hassan Chafi, Vice President, Research and Advanced Development
Summary
This project aims to develop methods and tools for fast incremental compilation with a focus on incremental compilation for DSL development tools. The project attacks the challenges involved from two directions. First, DSL development tools use high-level and modular grammar and transformation languages that traditionally require a full recompilation when any definition changes. This project develops incremental compilation schemes for these languages such that a small change to a grammar or transformation does not yield long compilation times. Second, DSL development tools use sophisticated build scripts for generating and assembling DSL components (syntax, analysis, code generation, editor) into a deployable DSL implementation. This project develops an incremental build system that reduces the overall build time for DSLs to a level that significantly improves the user experience in edit-compile-test cycles.