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Understanding XL
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XLR: Extensible Language and Runtime
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One way to represent arbitrary concepts is to invent new languages to describe them. This led to a large number of so-called domain-specific languages or DSL. The strength and weakness of these languages is that they do not try to be universal, but rather to focus on a very specific need. It is a strength, because a DSL doesn't need to carry any baggage, and its syntax and semantics can be very well suited to the domain it covers. It is a weakness because programmers need to learn a new language for each domain (and often even the basic rules of syntax can vary significantly or subtly from language to language). There is often little visibility on the long-term support. Many programmers will be reluctant to use a third-party DSL for a commercial development. XL takes a slightly different approach to DSL. Its built-in language extension capabilities are designed to make the creation of in-language DSL (or dialects) feasible. Adding a DSL to an XL program is similar in complexity to adding a new library for traditional languages. It doesn't require learning the basic syntax, which remain XL0 for any DSL based on XL. The Concept Programming frameworks provides good guidelines regarding the semantics of such DSL. A DSL will integrate in XL seamlessly, and be processed by the XL compiler itself, rather than require a third-party tool. The symbolic differentiation example shows a simple DSL integrated in XL.
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Copyright 2008 Christophe de Dinechin (Blog)
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