On: raising the semantic level of a program

[Jecel Assumpcao Jr]

ben wrote on Sat, 27 Jun 2020 19:15:25 -0600
> It would be nice if one could define a new language for problem
> solving and run it through compiler-compiler processor for interesting 
> problems.

That is what Alan Kay's group did a few year ago in their "STEPS"
project. They wanted to implement a modern computing system in only 20
thousand lines of code, so they did a compiler-compiler called OMeta
inspired by the classic Meta II system and defined specialized languages
for each part of the system.

For networking, for example, they defined a language that was actually
the ASCII diagrams for packet formats from the RFCs. For graphics they
defined a sort of "APL meets streams" language called Nile in which a
Cairo-like graphics system (called Gezzira) could be described in just a
few hundred lines of code.

http://vpri.org/writings.php

Look for the texts with "STEPS" in the title - those are the yearly
reports to the NSF (2007 to 2012).

-- Jecel