• Home
• Download
• Documentation
• Support
• Community
• Developers

• Getting Started
• Installation
  • Install Pre-Configured Eclipse With Xtext
  • Install Xtext From Update Site
• 5 Minutes Tutorial
  • Creating A New Xtext Project
  • Generating The Language Infrastructure
  • Try The Editor
  • Conclusion
• 15 Minutes Tutorial
  • Create A New Xtext Project
  • Write Your Own Grammar
  • Generate Language Artifacts
  • Run the Generated IDE Plug-in
  • Second Iteration : Adding Packages and Imports
• 15 Minutes Tutorial - Extended
  • Writing a Code Generator With Xtend
  • Unit Testing the Language
  • Creating Custom Validation Rules
• Reference Documentation
• Overview
  • What is Xtext?
  • How Does It Work?
  • Xtext is Highly Configurable
  • Who Uses Xtext?
  • Who is Behind Xtext?
  • What is a Domain-Specific Language
• The Grammar Language
  • A First Example
  • The Syntax
  • Ecore Model Inference
  • Grammar Mixins
  • Common Terminals
• Configuration
  • The Language Generator
  • Dependency Injection in Xtext with Google Guice
• Runtime Concepts
  • Runtime Setup (ISetup)
  • Setup within Eclipse-Equinox (OSGi)
  • Logging
  • Validation
  • Linking
  • Scoping
  • Value Converter
  • Serialization
  • Formatting (Pretty Printing)
  • Fragment Provider (Referencing Xtext Models From Other EMF Artifacts)
  • Encoding in Xtext
• IDE Concepts
  • Label Provider
  • Content Assist
  • Quick Fixes
  • Template Proposals
  • Outline View
  • Hyperlinking
  • Syntax Coloring
• Xtext and Java
  • Plug-in Setup
  • Referring to Java Elements using JVM Types
  • Referring to Java Types Using Xbase
  • Inferring a JVM Model
  • Using Xbase Expressions
  • Xbase Language Reference
  • Lexical Syntax
  • Types
  • Expressions
  • Extension Methods
• MWE2
  • Examples
  • Language Reference
  • Syntax Reference
• Xtend
  • Getting Started
  • Classes and Functions
  • Expressions
• Integration with EMF and Other EMF Editors
  • Model, Ecore Model, and Ecore
  • EMF Code Generation
  • XtextResource Implementation
  • Integration with GMF Editors
• Appendix
• Migrating from Xtext 1.0.x to 2.0
  • Take the Shortcut
  • Migrating Step By Step
  • Now go for then new features
• Migrating from Xtext 0.7.x to 1.0
  • Migrating Step By Step

Xtend

Xtend is a statically-typed programming language which is tightly integrated with and runs on the Java Virtual Machine. It has its roots in the Java programming language but improves on a couple of concepts:

• Advanced Type Inference - You rarely need to write down type signatures
• Full support for Java Generics - Including all conformance and conversion rules
• Closures - concise syntax for anonymous function literals
• Operator overloading - make your libraries even more expressive
• Powerful switch expressions - type based switching with implicit casts
• No statements - Everything is an expression
• Template expressions - with intelligent white space handling
• Extension methods - Enhance closed types with new functionality optionally injected via JSR-330
• property access syntax - shorthands for getter and setter access
• multiple dispatch aka polymorphic method invocation
• translates to Java not bytecode - understand what's going on and use your code for platforms such as Android or GWT

It is not aiming at replacing Java all together. Therefore its library is a thin layer over the Java Development Kit (JDK) and interacts with Java exactly the same as it interacts with Xtend code. Also Java can call Xtend functions in a completely transparent way. And of course, it provides a modern Eclipse-based IDE closely integrated with the Java Development Tools (JDT).

Top

Getting Started

The best way to get started is to materialize the Xtend Tutorial example project in your workspace. You'll find it in the new project wizard dialog.

The project contains a couple of sample Xtend files, which show the different language concepts in action. You should also have a look into the xtend-gen folder which contains the generated Java-version of them.