Tagless-final DSL embedding: how to keep extending the language and be sure it will still work

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K00091
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Software
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: KISELYOV Oleg 東北大学, 情報科学研究科, 助教 (50754602)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: DSL / Domain-specific language / tagless-final / denotational semantics / algebra

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Tagless-final approach is a method for embedding domain-specific languages (DSLs) in a programming language. It addresses the principal challenge: implementing embedded DSLs that are (1) efficient; (2) easily extensible for new domain knowledge; (3) statically assured to "do no wrong" no matter how they are modified. Proposed in the author's prior research, the present research has developed the approach to a practical extent: a wide variety of DSLs, from database query and highest-performance stream processing to natural language grammar and semantics. The results are taught at summer schools, presented at scientific meetings, published in journal articles and a monograph. The approach underlies the new undergraduate class `Compilers' that I have developed and taught. The tagless-final approach has been seemingly successfully used in other academic and commercial projects, and explained in several books and taught in many tutorials, by people with no affiliation with me.

Free Research Field

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Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

Tagless-final was used in the conduct of Personalized Genomic Cancer Vaccine clinical trial NCT02721043, Mount Sinai - Hammer Lab, 2016-2019. Tagless-final has been used in several companies and large-scale research projects, and mentioned in job ads. I had no involvement with these applications.