Prop
Language Reference Manual
(for version 2.3.4)

Allen Leung
leunga@users.sourceforge.net
http://prop-cc.sourceforge.net

Abstract:

This reference manual provides an introduction to Prop, release 2.3.4. Prop is a multiparadigm extension of C++, and is designed for building high performance compiler and language transformation systems, using pattern matching and rewriting. This guide describes the syntax and semantics of the Prop language and describes how to develop programs using the Prop to C++ translator.

The author will neither assume responsibility for any damages caused by the use of this product, nor accept warranty or update claims. This product is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. This product is in the public domain, and may be freely distributed. Prop is a research prototype. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice.

 
• Contents
• Introduction
  • Availability
  • Organization of this Reference Manual
• General Concepts
  • Syntactic Conventions
  • Basic syntactic classes
  • Literals
  • The Prop Language
• Lexer and Parser Generation
  • Lexer Specification
    • Regular expressions
    • Lexeme
    • Lexeme class
    • Tokens
    • The matchscan statement
    • Class LexerBuffer
    • Class IOLexerBuffer
    • Class IOLexerStack
  • Parser Specification
    • Syntax class
    • Syntax declaration
    • Precedence
    • expect: n
    • Production rules
    • Parser report
    • Interfacing with the generated lexer
  • Debugging Parsers
• Algebraic Datatypes and Pattern Matching
  • A quick tour of pattern matching
    • Pattern matching versus object-oriented style
    • More examples
    • Variants of match
  • Algebraic Datatypes
    • Instantiating a datatype
  • Pattern Matching
    • Cost minimization
    • Match all rules
    • Repetition
    • Pattern syntax
  • Refining a datatype
  • Memory management
    • Garbage collection
    • Persistence
• Inference
  • An Example
    • Another example
  • Inference Class
  • Inference Rules
• Tree Rewriting
  • A rewriting example
    • Conditional rewriting and actions
  • Rewrite class
  • Rewriting rules
  • Rewriting modifiers
    • Rewriting modifier example
  • The rewrite statement
    • Rewriting modes
    • State caching optimization
    • Specifying secondary indices
    • Using an internal index
    • Using an external index
      • Class RewriteCache
      • Class GCRewriteCache
  • Short circuiting rewrite paths with cutrewrite
  • Conditional failure with failrewrite
  • Confluence and termination
  • Debugging Tree Rewriting
  • Optimizing Tree Rewriting
• User defined datatypes: Views
  • A first example
  • Another view example
  • Syntax of view definitions
• Graph Types and Graph Rewriting
  • Graph Types
  • The Graph Interface
  • Set Formalisms
  • Graph Rewriting
• Running the Translator
  • Options
  • Error Messages
• Garbage Collection in the Prop Library
  • Introduction
  • The Framework
  • Our Framework
  • The Implementation
  • Architecture
  • The Programmatic Interface
  • Memory Allocation
  • The GC Protocol
  • Messages and Statistics
  • The Bartlett style mostly copying collector
  • The Mark Sweep collector
  • Finalization
    • Weak Pointers
    • The Heap Walker
• References
• Index
• About this document ...