language parallax

Yesterday I was googling for any references to the HQL ANTLR grammar files. One of the first things that came up was a blog entry by Martin Fowler. I scrolled down a bit and noticed another blog entry about using antlr for dsl’s.

More googling shows that the Fowler/ANTLR connection is not new, but it was new to me last night. Yet another reason to stick with ANTLR — and it’s more validation that ANTLR is currently the best approach for doing work with DSL’s.

I can’t want for the day when this is all standardized. IBM’s Safari project, JetBrains’ Language API, and Intentional Software’s Kaleidoscope are all either using proprietary or less widely implemented technology. One of the biggest wins with ANTLR is the availability of many serious grammars.

Which brings me to this point: When are we going to have an “Open Language” movement like we’ve already had “Open Source”. We (the “community”) should at least make the grammars public and standardized. I’m really realizing that there is so much intellectual property bound up in and potential for automation lost because languages are flat, opaque, dead data structures. When more people have the ability and know-how to manipulate these structures, we’re going to see a renaissance in development tools.