Eli Project

Methods and techniques of compiler construction provide an enabling technology for generating software from specifications. They are applicable to a range of problems that is much broader than the development of compilers for programming languages: Processors for input languages, design languages, specification languages, and intermediate languages in applications programs all demand solutions to translation problems. We have combined a variety of standard tools that implement powerful compiler construction strategies into a domain-specific programming environment called Eli. Using this environment, one can automatically generate complete language implementations from application-oriented specifications. The implementations might be interpretive, using the constructs of the source language to invoke operations of an existing system, or might involve translation into an arbitrary target language. Eli provides Modern compiler construction facilities to users with a wide range of sophistication. It offers complete solutions for commonly-encountered language implementation subtasks and contains libraries of reusable specifications, making possible the production of high-quality implementations from simple problem descriptions. The system has been in the field since 1989, and has been used in a number of projects worldwide. It generates programs whose performance is comparable to that of a good hand-coded implementation. Development time for a processor using Eli is GeneRally about one third of that for comparable hand code, and maintenance is significantly easier because specifications rather than implementations are being maintained.