Declarative Specification of Template-Based Textual Editors
Tobi Vollebregt, Lennart C. L. Kats, Eelco Visser. Declarative Specification of Template-Based Textual Editors. In International Workshop on Language Descriptions, Tools, and Applications (LDTA 2012). Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science. Elsevier, 2012. [pdf] [bib]
Abstract
Syntax discoverability has been a crucial advantage of structure editors for new users of a language. Despite this advantage, structure editors have not been widely adopted. Based on immediate parsing and analyses, modern textual code editors are also increasingly syntax-aware: structure and textual editors are converging into a new editing paradigm that combines text and templates. Current text-based language workbenches require redundant specification of the ingredients for a template-based editor, which is detrimental to the quality of syntactic completion, as consistency and completeness of the definition cannot be guaranteed. In this paper we describe the design and implementation of a specification language for syntax definition based on templates. It unifies the specification of parsers, unparsers and template-based editors. We evaluate the template language by application to to two domain-specific languages used for tax benefits and mobile applications.
More information
More information about this project can be found at TemplateLang on the Spoofax wiki.