Treffer: Semantics-Based Rapid Prototyping of a Subset of SQL : RISC Report Series, 25-02

This report documents the application of our semantics-based language generator SLANG to developing a rapid prototype of a non-trivial domain-specific language, a substantial subset of the Structured Query Language SQL that we have named SubSQL. After developing a mathematical/logical formulation of the language's abstract syntax, formal type system, and denotational semantics, we have translated this formulation into a SLANG specification from which the SLANG software generates Java code that implements a parser, a printer, a type-checker, and an executor of the language. This implementation is based on several manually created Java classes that implement the mathematical domains and operations used in the formalization, a simple persistent database, and a high-level application programming interface that allows to execute complete SubSQL scripts from file or individual SubSQL commands within Java programs. The results represent a blueprint for the semantics-based development of other domain-specific languages of similar complexity.