Towards the Generation of a Text-Based IDE from a Language Metamodel

Abstract

In the model driven world languages are usually specified by a (meta) model of their abstract syntax. For textual languages this is different from the traditional approach, where the language is specified by a (E)BNF grammar. Support for the designer of textual languages, e.g. a parser generator, is therefore normally based on grammars. This paper shows that similar support for language design based on metamodels is not only possible, but is even more powerful than the support based on grammars. In this paper we describe how an integrated development environment for a language can be generated from the language's abstract syntax metamodel, thus providing the language designer with the possibility to quickly, and with little effort, create not only a new language but also the tooling necessary for using this language.