GenInc: An Incremental Context-Free Grammar Learning Algorithm for Domain-Specific Language Development.

Abstract

Abstract- While grammar inference (or grammar induction) has found extensive application in the areas of robotics, computational biology, speech and pattern recognition, its application to problems in programming language and software engineering domains has been limited. We have found a new application area for grammar inference which intends to make domainspecific language development easier for domain experts not well versed in programming language design, and finds a second application in construction of renovation tools for legacy software systems. As a continuation of our previous efforts to infer context-free grammars (CFGs) for domain-specific languages which previously involved a genetic-programming based CFG inference system, we discuss improvements made to an incremental learning algorithm, called GenInc, for inferring context-free grammars with a core focus on facilitating domain-specific language development. We elaborate on the enhancements made to GenInc in the form of new operators, and conclude by discussing the results of applying GenInc to domain-specific languages.