KHEPERA: A System for Rapid Implementation of Domain-Specific Languages

The KHEPERA system is a toolkit for the rapid implementation and long-term maintenance of domain specific languages (DSLs). Our viewpoint is that DSLs are most easily implemented via source-to-source translation from the DSL into another language and that this translation should be based on simple parsing, sophisticated tree-based analysis and manipulation, and source generation using pretty-printing techniques. KHEPERA emphasizes the use of familiar, pre-existing tools and provides support for transformation replay and debugging for the DSL processor and end-user programs. In this paper, we present an overview of our approach, including implementation details and a short example.