Forwarding in attribute grammars for modular language design

Eric Van Wyk, Oege De Moor, Kevin Backhouse, Paul Kwiatkowski

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

90 Scopus citations

Abstract

Forwarding is a technique for providing default attribute definitions in attribute grammars that is helpful in the modular implementation of programming languages. It complements existing techniques such as default copy rules. This paper introduces forwarding, and shows howi t is but a small extension of standard higher-order attribute grammars. The usual tools for manipulating higher-order attribute grammars, including the circularity check (which tests for cyclic dependencies between attribute values), carry over without modification. The closure test (which checks that each attribute has a defining equation) needs modification, however, because the resulting higher-order attribute grammars may contain spurious attributes that are never evaluated, and indeed that need not be defined. 1 Motivation The modular definition of programming.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCompiler Construction - 11th International Conference, CC 2002 Held as Part of the Joint European Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2002, Proceedings
EditorsR. Nigel Horspool
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages128-142
Number of pages15
ISBN (Print)3540433694, 9783540433699
DOIs
StatePublished - 2002
Externally publishedYes
Event11th International Conference on Compiler Construction, CC 2002 Held as Part of the Joint European Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2002 - Grenoble, France
Duration: Apr 8 2002Apr 12 2002

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume2304
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Other

Other11th International Conference on Compiler Construction, CC 2002 Held as Part of the Joint European Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2002
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityGrenoble
Period4/8/024/12/02

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002.

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