author = {Wolfgang Schreiner and William Steingartner},
title = {{The SLANG Semantics-Based Language Generator}},
language = {english},
abstract = {This report documents the SLANG semantics-based language generator. SLANG is a software for generating rapid prototype implementations of programming languages from their formal specifications. Its input is a text file that describes the abstract syntax of a language and its concrete text representation; from this, a parser is generated (utilizing the ANTLR4 tool) that transforms the text representation of a program into its abstract syntax tree and a printer that generates from the abstract syntax tree its text representation. Furthermore, one can equip the language with a formal type system (by logical inference rules) from which a type checker is generated. Finally, one can give the language a formal semantics, in the denotational style (by function equations) and/or in the big-step operational style (by transition steps); from this, a language interpreter is generated. SLANG is implemented in Java and produces Java source code; it should be easy to extend the software also to other target languages.},
number = {23-13},
year = {2023},
month = {September},
keywords = {formal semantics of programming languages, denotational semantics, operational semantics, type systems, interpreters},
sponsor = {Supported by the Slovak Academic Information Agency SAIA project 2023-03-15-001 “Semantics-Based Rapid Prototyping of Domain-Specific Languages”},
length = {59},
license = {CC BY 4.0 International},
type = {RISC Report Series},
institution = {Research Institute for Symbolic Computation (RISC), Johannes Kepler University Linz},
address = {Altenberger Straße 69, 4040 Linz, Austria},
issn = {2791-4267 (online)}