| 摘要 |
A parser-translator technology allows a user to specify complex test and/or transformation statements in a high-level user language, to ensure that such test and/or transformation statements are well-formed in accordance with a grammar defining legal statements in the user language, and to translate statements defined by the user into logically and syntactically correct directives for performing the desired data transformations or operations. Using the parser-translator technology, a user can focus on the semantics of the desired operations and need not be concerned with the proper syntax of a language for a particular system. Instead, grammars (i.e., data) define the behavior of a parser-translator implementation by encoding the universe of statements (e.g., legal test and/or transformation statements) and by encoding translations appropriate to a particular data processing application (e.g., a data conversion program, etc.). Some parser-translator implementations described herein interface dynamically with other systems and/or repositories to query for information about objects, systems and states represented therein, and/or their respective interfaces. Some grammars described herein encode sensitivity to an external context. In this way, context-sensitive prompting and validation of correct specification of statements is provided. A combination of parser technology and dynamic querying of external system state allows users to build complex statements (e.g., using natural languages within a user interface environment) and to translate those complex statements into statements or directives appropriate to a particular data processing application.
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