Practical Techniques for Language Design and Prototyping

Global computing involves the interplay of a vast variety of languages, but practially useful foundations for language specification and prototyping at the semantic level are lacking. In this talk we present a systematic approach consisting of three techniques: 1. A generic calculus of explicit substitutions with names (called CINNI) that allows us give a first-order representation of syntax to uniformly deal with all binding aspects. 2. An executable representation of Felleisen-style operational semantics in terms of first-order rewrite rules. 3. A logical framework, namely rewriting logic, that allows us to express (1) and (2) and, in addition, language aspects such as concurrency and non-determinism. We illustrate the use of these techniques in two applications: 1. A formal specification and analysis of PLAN, a Packet Language for Active Networks, that has been developed in the Switchware project at UPenn. This work was conducted in the scope of the DARPA Active Network Program. 2. The development of CIAO, a Calculus of Imperative Active Objects, a core language for concurrent object-oriented programming. It is especially designed to allow a the representation of practically relevant sublanguages of common object-oriented languages such as Java, C#, and C++. This second application is subject of ongoing work.