Towards modular extensions for a modular language

Resumen

Modularity allows the construction of complex designs from simpler, independent units that most of the time can be developed separately. In this paper we are concerned with developing mechanisms for easily implementing modular extensions to modular (logic) languages. By (language) extensions we refer to different groups of syntactic definitions and translation rules that extend a language. Our application of the concept of modularity in this context is twofold. We would like these extensions to be modular, in the above sense, i.e., we should be able to develop different extensions mostly separately. At the same time, the sources and targets for the extensions are modular languages, i.e., such extensions may take as input separate pieces of code and also produce separate pieces of code. Dealing with this double requirement involves interesting challenges to ensure that modularity is not broken: first, combinations of extensions (as if they were a single extension) must be given a precise meaning. Also, the separate translation of multiple sources (as if they were a single source) must be feasible. We present a detailed description of a code expansion-based framework that proposes novel solutions for these problems. We argue that the approach, while implemented for Ciao, can be adapted for other languages and Prolog-based systems.