Student Language Development Environment

What is SLADE?

The SLADE system is a development environment for programming languages. The main restriction on the nature of the programming language that is developed is the Application Programming Interface, abbreviated to API. A general-purpose API is included in the system, but the user is free to add and change the routines in the API to suit his or her needs. The SLADE system is written in, and generates, C code. A compiler that is generated by SLADE generates code for a VIrtual Machine called VIM.

The SLADE system consists of a:

• scanner generator
• attributed parser generator
• API
• VIM interpreter
• compiler compiler (which assumes the presence of a C compiler on your system).
• code generator (VIM to C-code)
• code generator (VIM to Intel x86 assembly)

The structure and dependencies of the different (colored) parts are shown in the diagram below. In this diagram, the square blocks indicate executable programs, the rounded blocks indicate data, and bolded arrows indicate generation of source, intermediate or executable code.