TRAPing Modelica with Python

This short paper introduces TRAP, a small but powerful compiler development system based on the object-oriented, dynamic language Python. Employing a very high level language as a compiler tool’s base language reduces the need for additional tool support and importing library functionality to a minimum. Python in particular has the additional advantage of being a powerful and already quite popular general-purpose component integration framework, which can be utilized both for incorporating subcomponents and for embedding the compiler developed into a larger system. Exploiting these strengths, TRAP enables rapid prototyping and development of compilers – in particular, translators for medium-complexity special purpose languages – on a very high level of abstraction.