[antlr-interest] Creating extension libraries for a DSL

[Andreas Stefik]

Hey folks,

Our development team here is nearly complete with a DSL that we've
designed and are hoping to ship the first open-source version in July
or so. Right now, we parse down to the ANTLR Java target and are
preparing for the version past this release, which I think needs to
include some extension libraries for the language. For example, while
our DSL can do all of the typical language things (e.g., if
statements, looping), there are no APIs or libraries for doing file
IO, connecting to hardware, network programming, or other such things.

Does this community have any experience adding in these sorts of
features, as in, suggestions as for what kind of approach we should
take? For example, we could allow something like a Java Native
Interface, that would allow a developer to connect in utilities that
allow things like File access. Or, we could allow custom native
functions for low level things, like a file keyword, but that doesn't
sound very flexible or extensible.

Any general suggestions on an appropriate approach to take?

Stefik