Breaking the Rules with Eclipse Enterprise Generation Language

Enterprise Generation Language, or EGL, is a proven, application-focused programming language that breaks the rule that says developing apps for multiple platforms and devices means using multiple languages, technologies, and programming models. EGL does this through an extensible infrastructure that supports compilation into other languages, like Java and JavaScript. This enables EGL applications to take advantage of popular and proven platforms like JEE, web browsers, Android, and iOS without developers needing to become experts in multiple technologies and, in some cases, replicating the same logic in multiple languages. EGL is fully open, enabling you to easily interface with existing code from your EGL code. The EGL generation infrastructure is also extensible, enabling additions and modifications to the code generation process.

EGL, created by IBM, was designed with the understanding that runtime technology (like runtime platforms and middleware components) change, but your code shouldn't have to. By working at a higher-level and compiling down into a runtime language, the EGL code you write today can deploy to platforms that may appear in the future. EGL is being contributed to Eclipse by IBM under the Eclipse EGL Development Tools (EDT) project. This project (still in incubation) provides tools for developing and debugging EGL code. The EGL compiler and generators are also developed under the project.

This session will show how the EGL technology is designed and how it is meant to be extended through the use of stereotypes and annotations - yes, concepts typically associated with UML. This session will also show how new capabilities can be folded into the base code generation to enable generation to a specific target environment, such as the Google Android and iOS mobile platforms.

Will Smythe is the product line manager for EGL and related tools in IBM. He has been driving the EGL strategy since 2008 and had lead the effort to bring EGL to Eclipse in 2010. Will is passionate about technology, and would spend his days/nights programming if his job, wife, and kids allowed it.

Tim Wilson is the chief architect of EGL and is the lead of the Eclipse EGL Development Tools project. Tim is passionate about programming languages and is one of the inventors of EGL.