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<title>UTas ePrints - Genesis: An Extensible Java</title>
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<meta content="Lewis, Ian J" name="eprints.creators_name" />
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<meta content="Extensible programming languages allow users to create fundamentally new syntax and translate this syntax into language primitives. The concept of compile-time meta-programming has been around for decades, but systems that provide such abilities generally disallow the creation of new syntactic forms, or have heavy restrictions on how, or where, this may be done.
Genesis is an extension to Java that supports compile-time meta-programming by allowing users to create their own arbitrary syntax. This is achieved through macros that operate on a mix of both concrete and abstract syntax, and produce abstract syntax. Genesis attempts to provide a minimal design whilst maintaining, and extending, the expressive power of other similar macro systems.
The core Genesis language definition lacks many of the desirable features found in other systems, such as quasi-quote, hygiene, and static expression-type dispatch, but is expressive enough to define these as syntax extensions. User-defined macros produce only well-formed syntactic structures via the use of a predefined set of classes that define a Java abstract syntax.
At the heart of Genesis is a flexible parser that is capable of parsing any context-free grammars - even ambiguous ones. The parser is capable of arbitrary speculation and will consider all possible parses. The parser constructs a graph of possible paths, and is capable of dynamically pruning this graph, or combining nodes, based on precedence or associativity rules. This general parser allows macro programmers to forget about parsing, and concentrate on defining new syntax.
One key goal of this system was to address the programmer's learning curve by providing as simple a system as possible. This was achieved by the use of the flexible parser, the introduction of only one new construct to standard Java, and extensions to make programming macros more user friendly.
The expressiveness of Genesis is wide ranging; it is capable of providing small scale limited use macros, large scale semantic modifications, through to complete language replacements.
To demonstrate this expressiveness, we implement many of the simple test cases found in other systems, such as a type-safe printf, assertions, and iteration statements. These test cases require an ability to perform static type-checking and to manipulate compile-time values and abstract syntax trees. As additional examples of Genesis' expressive power we also provide implementations of embedded subsets of SQL and Haskell. As a final proof of power, the Haskell subset can operate as a stand-alone extension independent of any recognisable Java code.
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http://www.oonumerics.org/blitz/manual/blitz.ps
[WC93] Daniel Weise and Roger Crew: Programmable Syntax Macros. In, Proceedings of the SIGPLAN 93 Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI 93), pp. 156-165, Albuquerque, New Mexico, June 1993.
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[Wil04] Gregory V Wilson: Extensible Programming for the 21st Century, Manuscript, May 2004. Available from (viewed April 2005):
http://www.third-bit.com/~gvwilson/xmlprog.html
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operator_overloading
[Wir71] Niklaus Wirth: The Programming Language Pascal. Acta Informatica, Volume 1, pp. 35-63, Jun 1971.
[WK00] Joerg Walter and Mathias Koch: uBLAS Overview, 2000. Available from (viewed March 2005):
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[You67] Daniel H. Younger: Recognition and parsing of context-free languages in time n3, Information and Control, Volume 10, Number 2, pp. 189-208, 1967.
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<meta content="Extensible programming languages allow users to create fundamentally new syntax and translate this syntax into language primitives. The concept of compile-time meta-programming has been around for decades, but systems that provide such abilities generally disallow the creation of new syntactic forms, or have heavy restrictions on how, or where, this may be done.
Genesis is an extension to Java that supports compile-time meta-programming by allowing users to create their own arbitrary syntax. This is achieved through macros that operate on a mix of both concrete and abstract syntax, and produce abstract syntax. Genesis attempts to provide a minimal design whilst maintaining, and extending, the expressive power of other similar macro systems.
The core Genesis language definition lacks many of the desirable features found in other systems, such as quasi-quote, hygiene, and static expression-type dispatch, but is expressive enough to define these as syntax extensions. User-defined macros produce only well-formed syntactic structures via the use of a predefined set of classes that define a Java abstract syntax.
At the heart of Genesis is a flexible parser that is capable of parsing any context-free grammars - even ambiguous ones. The parser is capable of arbitrary speculation and will consider all possible parses. The parser constructs a graph of possible paths, and is capable of dynamically pruning this graph, or combining nodes, based on precedence or associativity rules. This general parser allows macro programmers to forget about parsing, and concentrate on defining new syntax.
One key goal of this system was to address the programmer's learning curve by providing as simple a system as possible. This was achieved by the use of the flexible parser, the introduction of only one new construct to standard Java, and extensions to make programming macros more user friendly.
The expressiveness of Genesis is wide ranging; it is capable of providing small scale limited use macros, large scale semantic modifications, through to complete language replacements.
To demonstrate this expressiveness, we implement many of the simple test cases found in other systems, such as a type-safe printf, assertions, and iteration statements. These test cases require an ability to perform static type-checking and to manipulate compile-time values and abstract syntax trees. As additional examples of Genesis' expressive power we also provide implementations of embedded subsets of SQL and Haskell. As a final proof of power, the Haskell subset can operate as a stand-alone extension independent of any recognisable Java code.
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<h1 class="ep_tm_pagetitle">Genesis: An Extensible Java</h1>
<p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"><span class="person_name">Lewis, Ian J</span> (2005) <xhtml:em>Genesis: An Extensible Java.</xhtml:em> PhD thesis, University of Tasmania.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"></p><table style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a onmouseover="EPJS_ShowPreview( event, 'doc_preview_648' );" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/637/1/01Front.pdf" onmouseout="EPJS_HidePreview( event, 'doc_preview_648' );"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a><div class="ep_preview" id="doc_preview_648"><table><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/637/thumbnails/1/preview.png" class="ep_preview_image" border="0" /><div class="ep_preview_title">Preview</div></td></tr></table></div></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/637/1/01Front.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF (Front Matter)</span></a> - Requires a PDF viewer<br />242Kb</td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a onmouseover="EPJS_ShowPreview( event, 'doc_preview_649' );" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/637/2/02Whole.pdf" onmouseout="EPJS_HidePreview( event, 'doc_preview_649' );"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a><div class="ep_preview" id="doc_preview_649"><table><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/637/thumbnails/2/preview.png" class="ep_preview_image" border="0" /><div class="ep_preview_title">Preview</div></td></tr></table></div></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/637/2/02Whole.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF (Complete thesis)</span></a> - Requires a PDF viewer<br />1939Kb</td></tr></table><div class="not_ep_block"><h2>Abstract</h2><p style="padding-bottom: 16px; text-align: left; margin: 1em auto 0em auto">Extensible programming languages allow users to create fundamentally new syntax and translate this syntax into language primitives. The concept of compile-time meta-programming has been around for decades, but systems that provide such abilities generally disallow the creation of new syntactic forms, or have heavy restrictions on how, or where, this may be done.
Genesis is an extension to Java that supports compile-time meta-programming by allowing users to create their own arbitrary syntax. This is achieved through macros that operate on a mix of both concrete and abstract syntax, and produce abstract syntax. Genesis attempts to provide a minimal design whilst maintaining, and extending, the expressive power of other similar macro systems.
The core Genesis language definition lacks many of the desirable features found in other systems, such as quasi-quote, hygiene, and static expression-type dispatch, but is expressive enough to define these as syntax extensions. User-defined macros produce only well-formed syntactic structures via the use of a predefined set of classes that define a Java abstract syntax.
At the heart of Genesis is a flexible parser that is capable of parsing any context-free grammars - even ambiguous ones. The parser is capable of arbitrary speculation and will consider all possible parses. The parser constructs a graph of possible paths, and is capable of dynamically pruning this graph, or combining nodes, based on precedence or associativity rules. This general parser allows macro programmers to forget about parsing, and concentrate on defining new syntax.
One key goal of this system was to address the programmer's learning curve by providing as simple a system as possible. This was achieved by the use of the flexible parser, the introduction of only one new construct to standard Java, and extensions to make programming macros more user friendly.
The expressiveness of Genesis is wide ranging; it is capable of providing small scale limited use macros, large scale semantic modifications, through to complete language replacements.
To demonstrate this expressiveness, we implement many of the simple test cases found in other systems, such as a type-safe printf, assertions, and iteration statements. These test cases require an ability to perform static type-checking and to manipulate compile-time values and abstract syntax trees. As additional examples of Genesis' expressive power we also provide implementations of embedded subsets of SQL and Haskell. As a final proof of power, the Haskell subset can operate as a stand-alone extension independent of any recognisable Java code.
</p></div><table style="margin-bottom: 1em" cellpadding="3" class="not_ep_block" border="0"><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Item Type:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">Thesis (PhD)</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Keywords:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">Programming Languages, Extensibility, Java, Meta-programming</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Subjects:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/view/subjects/280303.html">280000 Information, Computing and Communication Sciences > 280300 Computer Software > 280303 Programming Languages</a><br /><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/view/subjects/280301.html">280000 Information, Computing and Communication Sciences > 280300 Computer Software > 280301 Programming Techniques</a></td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">ID Code:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">637</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Deposited By:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><span class="ep_name_citation"><span class="person_name">Dr Ian J Lewis</span></span></td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Deposited On:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">22 Jan 2007</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Last Modified:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">09 Jan 2008 02:30</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">ePrint Statistics:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><a target="ePrintStats" href="/es/index.php?action=show_detail_eprint;id=637;">View statistics for this ePrint</a></td></tr></table><p align="right">Repository Staff Only: <a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/users/home?screen=EPrint::View&eprintid=637">item control page</a></p>
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