Towards high-level editing in syntax-based editors
Leland R. Dykes, Robert D. Cameron · Software Engineering Journal · 1990
Syntax-based editors typically provide rudimentary operations (delete, insert, replace) for manipulating abstract syntax trees. The incorporation of higher level manipulation facilities into such editors can make editing both easier and less error-prone. We have implemented a prototype editor that adds useful higher level manipulation facilities, including mid-level semantics-altering manipulations and high-level semantics-preserving transformations. We describe the basic organisation of these manipulations into a managable number of overloaded commands and show how the commands can be combined in useful editing scripts.