Towards a standard family of languages for matching patterns in source code

Abstract

We make a case for the definition of a family of languages for expressing patterns over both the structure and semantics of source code. Our proposal is unique in that it attempts to provide a unified solution to the problem of searching for patterns in multiple programming languages, and in that it focuses on the semantics of the program rather than on its syntactic structure, all while striving to ensure simplicity and ease-of-use. We present the motivation and the unique difficulties involved in defining such languages, discuss strategies for dealing with these problems, and propose a prototype family of code pattern languages (CPLs).