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TypePal: Name and Type Analysis Made Easy

rascal-0.40.16
typepal-0.14.8

Synopsis

TypePal is a framework for name analysis, type checking and type inference

Description

Many type checkers have already been written in Rascal with good results. However, type checkers for different languages have a lot in common and address similar questions:

  • How to handle declarations of names, in particular their scope and uses?
  • How to distinguish the roles names can play, e.g., names of functions, data types, labels, constants or variables?
  • How to handle imports and multiple name spaces?
  • How to associate requirements/constraints relevant for type checking with the syntax definition of the language being type checked?
  • How to represent the types that occur in a program?
  • How to handle global or local type inference?
  • How to handle overloading?
  • How to give precise error messages (and avoid spurious messages)?
  • How to extract information that is useful for later compiler stages or the IDE for, e.g., code generation, use-def information or name completion?

TypePal is a Rascal framework that addresses the above questions and we describe here all its concepts, architecture and features and also show some examples: