Syntactic abstraction in component interfaces

In this paper, we show how to combine a component system and a macro system. A component system separates the definition of a program fragment from the statements that link it, enabling independent compilation of the fragment. A macro system, in contrast, relies on explicit links among fragments that import macros, since macro expansion must happen at compile time. Our combination places macro definitions inside component signatures, thereby permitting macro expansion at compile time, while still allowing independent compilation and linking for the run-time part of components