language.html

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title: The Language
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    <h2>About the Language</h2>
    <p>
        <em>Monty</em> is a class-based, object-oriented language. Classes,
        variables and functions are objects. In this way, functions can be
        used as parameters and return values. This feature can often be found
        in scripting languages, but not in classic programming languages.
        As a basic principle every object is defined at any time. Values like
        <code>nil</code>, <code>null</code> or <code>None</code> do not exist.
        This decision is based upon
        <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Hoare#Apologies_and_retractions" target="_blank">
            Tony Hoare's
        </a>
        statement on his <em>"Billion Dollar Mistake"</em> regarding null
        references.
        </p>
        <p>
        The fundament of the language is a static type system which is well
        known from classic programming languages like <em>C++</em> or
        <em>Java</em>.
        Static typing has a positive effect on the runtime performance of a
        programming language. Due to abstract classes and a new operator which
        allows the extension of objects at runtime, we provide flexible typing
        mechanisms and improve the development comfort.
        </p>
        <p>
        The syntax is designed as compact as possible, while being as readable
        as possible. On this account we refrain from using the well known
        access modifiers <em>public</em>, <em>protected</em> and
        <em>private</em> and instead use the <em>UML</em> notation for
        attribute visibility. Also instead of using curly braces to signalize
        blocks, we use indentation to bring structure into the code (as it is
        also done in <em>Python</em>).
        The assignment operator in <em>Monty</em> is not just an equals
        <code>=</code> symbol, but the mathematically more correct notation
        <code>:=</code>.
    </p>
    <p>
        You can find the language specification at our
        <a href="{{ site.BASE_PATH}}/downloads.html">downloads</a> page.
    </p>
    <h2>The Compiler</h2>
    <p>
        The <em>Monty</em> compiler is entirely developed in <em>Java</em>.
        We use the parser generator <em><a href="http://www.antlr.org/"
        target="_blank">ANTLR</em></a> to generate the syntax
        analysis from the grammar. The context analysis and code generation are
        implemented in <em>Java</em>, using the design patterns
        prescribed by <em>ANTLR</em>. The output of the code generation is
        machine code for the compiler infrastructure <em><a target="_blank"
        href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM 2</a></em>.
        This machine code is then either interpreted by the <em>Low Level
        Virtual Machine (LLVM)</em> or compiled to machine code of the target
        architecture.
    </p>
    <div class="thumbnail">
        <img src="assets/media/compiler.png"
             alt="Monty's Compiler Structure"/>
        <div class="caption">
            <p><em>Monty's</em> Compiler Structure</p>
        </div>
    </div>
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