A Programmable Programming Language

Matthias Felleisen, Robert Bruce Findler, Matthew Flatt, Shriram Krishnamurthi, Eli Barzilay, Jay McCarthy, Sam Tobin-Hochstadt

Communications of the ACM, 2018

Abstract

In addition to libraries and packages, programmers develop and use embedded problem-specific languages as building blocks of software systems. These languages help developers state solutions for the various aspects of the problem in appropriate terms. Complete software systems compose these partial solutions into a coherent whole. Sadly, this form of work is conducted without real support from the underlying programming language.

What this emerging development method calls out for, then, are programming languages that make the creation and use of embedded languages as convenient as the creation of libraries. Implementing this kind of programming language has been the goal of our 20-year-old Racket project. This paper presents the state of the project and sketches how it will proceed.

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