[news.eclipse.technology.ldt] Re: Beyond textual represenations...

["Mike Kaufman" <mkaufman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Guillaume -

I think that the reason the primary representation of programs as text files 
is because it is simple and readable by humans.

I also don't understand what benefit a binary storage form would have in 
making it easier to bring new languages online in eclipse.

Mike Kaufman
BEA Systems, Inc.


"Guillaume Pothier" <gpothier@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message 
news:d1fm9d$93j$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>I am really glad that the LDT project has been created.
> Many of the posts to this newsgroup discuss ASTs and parsers, assuming 
> that a programming language's primary representation will always be its 
> textual form.
>
> As far as I am concerned, I anticipate the day when the primary from of a 
> programming language is its AST, or even better, Abstract Syntax Graph. 
> Given the currently available computing power of the machines used by 
> developpers today, I think it is no luxury to start thinking of replacing 
> the traditional bunch of source files stored in a hierarchical filesystem 
> by a graph of objects backed by some database system.
>
> There are a few obvious benefits to do so, even in the simple case of 
> Java-only developments:
> - No more source code formatting hell and obnoxious merge conflicts caused 
> by formatting differences between developpers.
> - Elimination of the parsing step from the compilation
>
> I think the first thing LDT should provide is a new storage metaphor based 
> on ASTs (or ASGs). Of course, this representation issue does not solve all 
> the problems LDT proposes to deal with, but it would be a great foundation 
> for implementing new language support.
>
> Regards,
> Guillaume Pothier