Onward! 2017
Sun 22 - Fri 27 October 2017 Vancouver, Canada
co-located with SPLASH 2017
Wed 25 Oct 2017 11:30 - 12:00 at Regency B - Language Design Chair(s): Zachary Tatlock

For decades, the design and implementation of programming languages has been based on phrase structure grammars, which divide a program recursively into phrases (represented by nonterminals), leaving the words of the program (the terminals) as the atoms of this division. By contrast, dependency grammar suggests that dependency between words, not constituency between phrases, is the primary grammatical relationship, and that a grammar capturing this relationship is basically a lexicon.

In this paper, I suggest the use of dependency grammar for the design and implementation of programming languages. This allows me to unify the dictionaries populated by programs (with variables, procedures, functions, etc.) written in a programming language with the grammar of this language. I call the compilation of a programming language and its programs into a lexicon a langram and, using the example of the while language, show how langrams serve the ``growing of languages''.

Wed 25 Oct

Displayed time zone: Tijuana, Baja California change

10:30 - 12:00
Language DesignOnward! Papers at Regency B
Chair(s): Zachary Tatlock University of Washington, Seattle
10:30
30m
Talk
Can We Crowdsource Language Design?
Onward! Papers
Preston Tunnell Wilson Brown University, Justin Pombrio Brown University, USA, Shriram Krishnamurthi Brown University, USA
11:00
30m
Talk
Assessing User Preferences in Programming Language Design
Onward! Papers
Roger Chamberlain Washington University in St. Louis
11:30
30m
Talk
Replacing Phrase Structure Grammar with Dependency Grammar in the Design and Implementation of Programming Languages
Onward! Papers
Friedrich Steimann Fernuniversität