A DSL for Mapping Abstract Syntax Models to Concrete Syntax Models in ModelCC

TL;DR

This paper introduces a domain-specific language within ModelCC that enables flexible mapping from abstract syntax models to multiple concrete syntax models, enhancing language design and parser generation.

Contribution

It presents a novel DSL for ASM-CSM mappings in ModelCC, allowing multiple concrete syntax models for a single abstract syntax model.

Findings

Enables defining multiple concrete syntax models for one abstract model

Provides a meta-definition of the DSL for ASM-CSM mappings

Enhances flexibility in language specification and parser generation

Abstract

ModelCC is a model-based parser generator that decouples language design from language processing. ModelCC provides two different mechanisms to specify the mapping from an abstract syntax model to a concrete syntax model: metadata annotations defined on top of the abstract syntax model specification and a domain-specific language for defining ASM-CSM mappings. Using a domain-specific language to specify the mapping from abstract to concrete syntax models allows the definition of multiple concrete syntax models for the same abstract syntax model. In this paper, we describe the ModelCC domain-specific language for abstract syntax model to concrete syntax model mappings and we showcase its capabilities by providing a meta-definition of that domain-specific language.