Strategic polymorphism requires just two combinators!

In previous work, we introduced the notion of functional strategies: first-class generic functions that can traverse terms of any type while mixing uniform and type-specific behaviour. Functional strategies transpose the notion of term rewriting strategies (with coverage of traversal) to the functional programming paradigm. Meanwhile, a number of Haskell-based models and combinator suites were proposed to support generic programming with functional strategies. In the present paper, we provide a compact and matured reconstruction of functional strategies. We capture strategic polymorphism by just two primitive combinators. This is done without commitment to a specific functional language. We analyse the design space for implementational models of functional strategies. For completeness, we also provide an operational reference model for implementing functional strategies (in Haskell). We demonstrate the generality of our approach by reconstructing representative fragments of the Strafunski library for functional strategies

Building program understanding tools using visitor combinators

Program understanding tools manipulate program representations, such as abstract syntax trees, control-flow graphs, or data-flow graphs. This paper deals with the use of visitor combinators to conduct such manipulations. Visitor combinators are an extension of the well-known visitor design pattern. They are small, reusable classes that carry out specific visiting steps. They can be composed in different constellations to build more complex visitors. We evaluate the expressiveness, reusability, ease of development, and applicability of visitor combinators to the construction of program understanding tools. To that end, we conduct a case study in the use of visitor combinators for control-flow analysis and visualization as used in a commercial Cobol program understanding tool

XT: a bundle of program transformation tools : system description

{sc xt bundles existing and newly developed program transformation libraries and tools into an open framework that supports component-based development of program transformations. We discuss the roles of {sc xt's constituents in the development process of program transformation tools, as well as some experiences with building program transformation systems with {sc xt. <pr

Domain-specific languages

Domain-Specific Languages are used in software engineering in order to enhance quality, flexibility, and timely delivery of software systems, by taking advantage of specific properties of a particular application domain. This survey covers terminology, risks and benefits, examples, design methodologies, and implementation techniques of domain-specific languages as used for the construction and maintenance of software systems. Moreover, it covers an annotated selection of 75 key publications in the area of domain-specific languages

SearchSECO: A worldwide index of the open source software ecosystem

Repository mining research is a data-intensive domain with a focus on source code. There are many ways to search for code in the worldwide software ecosystem, but these search methods are inefficient and only cover small parts of the software ecosystem. One of the problems is granularity: it is possible to search through code on a file-level and cover a significant part of the software ecosystem or search for a line of code and only cover a small part of the software ecosystem, but not both. We propose SearchSECO: a language-agnostic search engine and research platform that searches through abstract representations of source code methods. We use SearchSECO to search across the worldwide software ecosystem and index the encountered methods. With SearchSECO, the field is advanced because it (1) provides finer-grained and more efficient searches, (2) covers more of the software ecosystem than other search mechanisms, and (3) provides mechanisms for source code provenance

SearchSECO: A worldwide index of the open source software ecosystem

Repository mining research is a data-intensive domain with a focus on source code. There are many ways to search for code in the worldwide software ecosystem, but these search methods are inefficient and only cover small parts of the software ecosystem. One of the problems is granularity: it is possible to search through code on a file-level and cover a significant part of the software ecosystem or search for a line of code and only cover a small part of the software ecosystem, but not both. We propose SearchSECO: a language-agnostic search engine and research platform that searches through abstract representations of source code methods. We use SearchSECO to search across the worldwide software ecosystem and index the encountered methods. With SearchSECO, the field is advanced because it (1) provides finer-grained and more efficient searches, (2) covers more of the software ecosystem than other search mechanisms, and (3) provides mechanisms for source code provenance