Why didn't someone think of it back in the 60's? Sigh.."XPL is not a
particularly programmer - friendly language."...
--
XPS - eXtensible Programming System
By eXtensible Systems, Inc.
The XPS project's purpose is to making programming computers easier by
raising the level of abstraction in programming languages beyond the
current practice. By using XML as a means for extensibility, XPS will
support both meta-programming and domain engineering. In particular, it
will make the creation of new Domain-Specific Languages very easy. By
moving the programming abstraction into to the problem domain, the
"impedance mis-match" between the problem domain and the solution domain
is all but eliminated.
XPS combines an XML-based programming language, XPL, with a robust
virtual machine making it easier to develop applications by hiding all
the "computer science" and increasing the level of abstraction without
losing performance. True to its name, XPL is highly extensible. It
permits extension of both the programming language and the virtual
machine with relative ease. Somewhat counter-intuitively, XPL is not a
particularly programmer friendly language. It is designed to be fast,
efficient, and easily compilable. It is expected that higher level (e.g.
domain specific) languages will be designed that translate into XPL.
These facilities support meta-programming and domain engineering so that
software can be written using domain-specific vocabularies. The goal is
to make it possible for the lay person to program computers without
having to learn complicated programming languages or understand the
tenets of computer science.
Currently, XPS is under development. It has just completed its 0.2.0
release which includes a basic XPL compiler that can reproduce its XPL
input. The next release, 0.3.0 (Summer 2005) will compile XPL to
executable code via LLVM's facilities. The decision to use LLVM was made
in November, 2003 as it provides a much simpler and more modern compiler
infrastructure than the other open source alternatives. Using LLVM for
the "back end" of XPS will accelerate the development of XPS because
many of the compilation and execution details are taken care of by LLVM.
--
+--------------------------------------------------------+
|Cyborg Animation Programmer | ·····@yagc.ndo.co.uk|
|http://badbyteblues.blogspot.com -----------------------|
+--------------------------------------------------------+
John Connors <·····@yagc.ndo.co.uk> wrote:
+---------------
| Why didn't someone think of it back in the 60's? Sigh.."XPL is not a
| particularly programmer - friendly language."...
+---------------
Someone did. Well, late 60's, leading to the publication of the book
"A Compiler Generator" by William M. McKeeman, James J. Horning,
and David B. Wortman, ISBN 13-155077-2 (Prentice-Hall 1970):
http://www.cs.toronto.edu/XPL/
The XPL Programming Language
The XPL programming language is a derivative of PL/I designed
for compiler writing. XPL was first announced at the 1968 FJCC
in San Francisco, CA. ... XPL is the name of both the programming
language and the compiler generator system (or TWS: translator
writing system) based on the language. ... A number of languages
are based on XPL, including the PL/M family and Hal/S [developed
for NASA for the Space Shuttle].
I really love those cute little T-diagrams that fill the insides of
the front & back covers of the hardback, showing all the platforms
that XPL has been ported to. [A T-diagram is a simple description of
a translator or compiler which shows the input language, the output
language, and the language or platform the translator itself runs on.]
Several open-source versions of optimizing XPL compilers are
currently available, see:
http://www.cs.toronto.edu/XPL/
http://www.idiom.com/free-compilers/TOOL/XPL-1.html
http://www.users.bigpond.com/robin_v/xpl.htm
+---------------
| XPS - eXtensible Programming System
| By eXtensible Systems, Inc.
...
| XPS combines an XML-based programming language, XPL, ...
+---------------
*BZZZT!* Sorry, game over. The name XPL is already taken, poseurs.
-Rob
-----
Rob Warnock <····@rpw3.org>
627 26th Avenue <URL:http://rpw3.org/>
San Mateo, CA 94403 (650)572-2607
John Connors <·····@yagc.ndo.co.uk> writes:
> Why didn't someone think of it back in the 60's? Sigh.."XPL is not a
> particularly programmer - friendly language."...
>
> --
>
> XPS - eXtensible Programming System
> By eXtensible Systems, Inc.
>
> The XPS project's purpose is to making programming computers easier by
> raising the level of abstraction in programming languages beyond the
> current practice. By using XML as a means for extensibility, XPS will
> support both meta-programming and domain engineering. In particular, it
> will make the creation of new Domain-Specific Languages very easy. By
> moving the programming abstraction into to the problem domain, the
> "impedance mis-match" between the problem domain and the solution domain
> is all but eliminated.
>
> XPS combines an XML-based programming language, XPL, with a robust
> virtual machine making it easier to develop applications by hiding all
> the "computer science" and increasing the level of abstraction without
> losing performance. True to its name, XPL is highly extensible. It
> permits extension of both the programming language and the virtual
> machine with relative ease. Somewhat counter-intuitively, XPL is not a
> particularly programmer friendly language. It is designed to be fast,
> efficient, and easily compilable. It is expected that higher level (e.g.
> domain specific) languages will be designed that translate into XPL.
> These facilities support meta-programming and domain engineering so that
> software can be written using domain-specific vocabularies. The goal is
> to make it possible for the lay person to program computers without
> having to learn complicated programming languages or understand the
> tenets of computer science.
Why do the words "practical joke" resonnate stronger and stronger everytime?
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?
__Pascal Bourguignon__ http://www.informatimago.com/