Xoc, yaspl (yet another SPL)

[Justin Johansson]

Has anyone here come across Xoc before?

Here's the abstract

 From http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1346281.1346312

ABSTRACT

Today's system programmers go to great lengths to extend the languages 
in which they program. For instance, system-specific compilers find 
errors in Linux and other systems, and add support for specialized 
control flow to Qt and event-based programs. These compilers are 
difficult to build and cannot always understand each other's language 
changes. However, they can greatly improve code understandability and 
correctness, advantages that should be accessible to all programmers.

We describe an extension-oriented compiler for C called xoc. An 
extension-oriented compiler, unlike a conventional extensible compiler, 
implements new features via many small extensions that are loaded 
together as needed. Xoc gives extension writers full control over 
program syntax and semantics while hiding many compiler internals. Xoc 
programmers concisely define powerful compiler extensions that, by 
construction, can be combined; even some parts of the base compiler, 
such as GNU C compatibility, are structured as extensions.

Xoc is based on two key interfaces. Syntax patterns allow extension 
writers to manipulate language fragments using concrete syntax. Lazy 
computation of attributes allows extension writers to use the results of 
analyses by other extensions or the core without needing to worry about 
pass scheduling.

Extensions built using xoc include xsparse, a 345-line extension that 
mimics Sparse, Linux's C front end, and xlambda, a 170-line extension 
that adds function expressions to C. An evaluation of xoc using these 
and 13 other extensions shows that xoc extensions are typically more 
concise than equivalent extensions written for conventional extensible 
compilers and that it is possible to compose extensions.

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