PhD Defense on Dynamic Language Embedding

I would like to invite to my PhD defense:

Dynamic Language Embedding With Homogeneous Tool Support

Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are increasingly used as embedded languages within general-purpose host languages. DSLs provide a compact, dedicated syntax for specifying parts of an application related to specialized domains. Unfortunately, such language extensions typically do not integrate well with existing development tools. Editors, compilers and debuggers are either unaware of the extensions, or must be adapted at a non-trivial cost. Furthermore, these embedded languages typically conflict with the grammar of the host language and make it difficult to write hybrid code; few mechanisms exist to control the scope and usage of multiple tightly interconnected embedded languages.

In this dissertation we present Helvetia, a novel approach to embed languages into an existing host language by leveraging the underlying representation of the host language used by these tools. We introduce Language Boxes, an approach that offers a simple, modular mechanism to encapsulate (i) compositional changes to the host language, (ii) transformations to address various concerns such as compilation and syntax highlighting, and (iii) scoping rules to control visibility of fine-grained language changes. We describe the design and implementation of Helvetia and Language Boxes, discuss the required infrastructure of a host language enabling language embedding, and validate our approach by case studies that demonstrate different ways to extend or adapt the host language syntax and semantics.

The defense will take place on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 16h15 in Room 001, Engehaldenstrasse 8, Bern. For directions please see http://www.iam.unibe.ch/en/contact.

After the defense, there will be an apéro.

Posted by Lukas Renggli at 17 October 2010, 5:31 pm with tags phd, helvetia, pharo, smalltalk link

Comments

Good luck. I’m sure you’ll breeze through.

Posted by Bijan Parsia at 17 October 2010, 6:07 pm link

Good luck for your defense... and I was wondering if it would be possible to view it online?

Posted by Ciprian Teodorov at 17 October 2010, 7:08 pm link

Good luck I’ve used your open source work and I’m thankful best of luck

Posted by Alejandro Garcia Fdz at 18 October 2010, 1:52 am link

Lukas, all my websites are running today thanks to your contributions; I regret, I can’t make me available for your defense, but wish you all the best!

Posted by Reza Razavi at 18 October 2010, 5:53 pm link

Leider kann ich nicht dabei sein, ich wünsche Dir viel Erfolg.

Melde Dich doch mal, wie es gelaufen ist

Viele Grüße Johannes

Posted by Johannes at 18 October 2010, 10:13 pm link