Visuallisa: A visual environment to develop attribute grammars

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on crafting a new visual language for attribute grammars (AGs), and on the development of the associated programming environment. We present a solution for rapid development of VisualLISA editor using DEViL. DEViL uses traditional attribute grammars, to specify the language's syntax and semantics, extended by visual representations to be associated with grammar symbols. From these specifications a visual programming environment is automatically generated. In our case, the environment allows us to edit a visual description of an AG that is automatically translated into textual notations, including an XML-based representation for attribute grammars (XAGra), and is intended to be helpful for beginners and rapid development of small AGs. XAGra allows us to use VisualLISA with other compiler-compiler tools.