Re: Extensible syntax

[Pascal Costanza <address@hidden>]

On 11 Dec 2003, at 8:42, Tom Locke wrote:

> Hi,
>
> ...seeking links / advice...
>
> I'm currently working on a language that is extensible in the same way
> that "Lisp is a programmable programming language". The intention is to
> come up with a language that can easily morph into a wide range of 
> DSLs.
>
> Lisp/Scheme provide exactly this facility, but every DSL must have
> Lisp's syntax.

No, that's not the case. See Common Lisp's LOOP macro as an example of 
a Lisp macro that switches to a more Algolish syntax. Also read 
something about Common Lisp's read macros. CLtL2 [1] has some nice 
examples.

> What about lisp-like extensibility, plus extensible
> syntax - i.e. a fully extensible set of prefix/infix/postfix operators
> and compound statements (e.g. control structures)?

Check out "Domain-Specific Language Definition Through Reflective 
Extensible Language Kernels" by Sebastian Gonzalez and Wolfgang de 
Meuter, one of the papers in 
http://prog.vub.ac.be/gpce-repls/papers.zip

I hope this helps.


Pascal

[1] Guy Steele, "Common Lisp the Language, 2nd edition". This is freely 
available at various URLs.

--
Tyler: "How's that working out for you?"
Jack: "Great."
Tyler: "Keep it up, then."