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[news.eclipse.technology.ldt] Re: Focus on DSLs: Domain-Specific Languages, research languages, dynamic languages, and little languages 
I agree with Chris Laffra and also suggest that we expand the charter to encompass other languages.

It should also be made easy to add new language support, like Chris Daly suggests, as a sub-sub-project. Or perhaps we could have a new top-level Language Project that would be the umbrella for languages. This would help signify that Eclipse is indeed a tool for many languages. Also having one home for all languages (something that came out of the Dynamic Languages BOF) would help users find what they need, as they currently have to go to many different places on the web to find all the languages. I think Diego has a good survey of the current language plug-ins for Eclipse at http://diegop.blogspot.com/2005/02/eclipsed.html A rough translation is available at http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://diegop.blogspot.com/2005/02/eclipsed.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://diegop.blogspot.com/2005/02/eclipsed.html%26hl%3Den%26lr%3Dlang_en%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den


It would be nice if there could be some sort of process to help new languages get off the ground and then get graduating to higher and higher levels. If there is enough effort behind each, they could get to where JDT is (but probably not since JDT is continually improving.)


For example, the first stage would just be hosting the language in a "vanilla" editor and integrating the existing language tools as External Tools.

The second stage would add syntax highlighting (via say a keyword file.)

The third stage adds integrated running via the Launch/Console APIs.

The fourth stage adds debugging?

The fifth stage adds parsing and AST, which opens up things like an Outline View, refactoring, etc.


This isn't exact, but it would be nice for implementors to see a clear path to how they can make their favorite language a first class citizen within Eclipse. Also, it would be useful for users to know at what stage their language is supported.

Luis
http://www.luisdelarosa.com/blog/

Chris Laffra wrote: 
During EclipseCON we held a BOF on Language Toolkits (see my other posting
in this group).
In addition, a BOF was held on "Dynamic Languages".
Based on the outcome of both BOFs, some of us really would like to see
activities under the LDT structured in different focal sub-projects (not in
any particular order):

+ Java-based languages sub-project
Find out how to reuse AST in similar Java-based languages (JSPs, etc.). This
sub-project would study the area as originally proposed by BEA

+ Parser tools.
Collect eclipse plug-ins for Lex+Yacc, JavaCC, Antlr, JikesPG, Bison, etc.
etc. Standardize on AST interfaces so that parsers are exchangeable.

+ Dynamic Languages.
Generic support for dynamically typed languages (LISP, PHP, Python, Jython,
Ruby, Groovy, etc). Study and support type inferencing algorithms, code
generation, interpreter design, etc.

+ Editor frameworks.
Based on ASTs, provide tools/wizards to generate editors, hover help,
outline views, etc to quick-start small and modest IDEs.

+ Makefile-based Languages.
Standardize on support for languages that have a 'make' style of building
programs (C, C++, Fortran, etc).

It will be hard to make the above classification orthogonal, and my proposal
here is just to start off a discussion.