JGroovy: An alternative approach to implement extensible Java compiler

Abstract

AbstractThe main reason for the invention of computer programming languages is for these languages to express a command‐to‐control machine behavior. Some of these programming languages have specific advantages that are used in specific environments such as structured query language (SQL), hypertext markup language (HTML), and spreadsheet. The common definitions of these languages are domain‐specific languages (DSLs). Although DSLs are the best way to deal with specific systems, it is hard to use with other environments or platforms. Groovy is a dynamic programming language that runs on the Java virtual machine. Groovy has some features that allow programmers to manage DSLs within its unique style. Groovy has some disadvantages because it does not support all Java features and syntax while also producing unnecessary byte code during compilation. This paper proposes an extended‐architecture technique to implement a computer programming language and compiler through extending Java with Groovy language. The extensible language is called ‘JGroovy’. And JGroovy is supported both by Java and Groovy language. We implement the compiler for JGroovy and call it the ‘JGroovy compiler’ (JGC). By its extended architecture, JGC is more compatible for Java source code than Javac can claim to be. And it also produces a better and more compact byte code than the Groovy compiler, with an approximate improvement of 8–12%. © 2013 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.