ScholarlyCommons

Title

XML Goes Native: Run-Time Representations for XTATIC

Author(s)

Vladimir Gapeyev, University of Pennsylvania
Michael Y. Levin, University of Pennsylvania
Benjamin C. Pierce, University of PennsylvaniaFollow
Alan Schmitt, University of Pennsylvania

Document Type

Technical Report

Date of this Version

October 2004

Comments

University of Pennsylvania Department of Computer and Information Science Technical Report No. MS-CIS-04-23.

Abstract

XTATIC is a lightweight extension of C^# offering native support for statically typed XML processing. XML trees are built-in values in XTATIC, and static analysis of the trees created and manipulated by programs is part of the ordinary job of the typechecker. "Tree grep" pattern matching is used to investigate and transform XML trees.

XTATIC’s surface syntax and type system are tightly integrated with those of C^#. Beneath the hood, however, an implementation of XTATIC must address a number of issues common to any language supporting a declarative style of XML processing (e.g., XQUERY, XSLT, XDUCE, CDUCE, XACT, XEN, etc.). In particular, it must provide representations for XML tags, trees, and textual data that use memory efficiently, support efficient pattern matching, allow maximal sharing of common substructures, and permit separate compilation. We analyze these representation choices in detail and describe the solutions used by the XTATIC compiler.

Recommended Citation

Vladimir Gapeyev, Michael Y. Levin, Benjamin C. Pierce, and Alan Schmitt, "XML Goes Native: Run-Time Representations for XTATIC", . October 2004.