Programming Research Group  -  University of Amsterdam  -  TR P9805 


            Development, Assessment, and Reengineering 
                     of Language Descriptions

                   Alex Sellink and Chris Verhoef


 We discuss tools that aid in the development, the assessment  and
 the reengineering of language descriptions.  The assessment tools
 give an indication as to what is wrong with an existing  language
 description,  and  give hints towards correction.  From a correct
 and complete language description, it is possible to  generate  a
 parser,  a  manual,  and  on-line  documentation.   The parser is
 geared towards reengineering purposes, but is also used to  parse
 the  examples  that  are  contained  in  the  documentation.  The
 reengineered language description is a  basic  ingredient  for  a
 reengineering  factory  that  can  manipulate  this language.  We
 demonstrate our approach with a  proprietary  language  for  real
 time embedded software systems that is used in telecommunications
 industry.  The described tool support can also be used to develop
 a  language  standard  without  syntax  errors  in  the  language
 description and its code examples.