For the attribute grammars domain, this work provides a more complete integration of descriptional composition in a more usable way. The initial idea introduced by Ganzinger and Giegerich was to apply descriptional composition to two separate attribute grammars. The symbolic composition allows deforestation to be performed on terms inside an attribute grammar. Moreover, all finite terms are evaluated through theses transformations. In this context, partial evaluation becomes some special case of symbolic composition.
Finally, recall that the attribute grammar formalism is not only an abstract notation for writing semantic equations. It is also itself a complete programming language, well known for its power and efficiency in writing large applications such as compilers. We have much experience in this area with the FNC-2 system [19]. Furthermore, to perform deforestation -- even in complex situations -- no extension of the initial and simple formalism is needed.
Thus, we believe that attribute grammars could be used profitably as an alternative to other classical formalisms for the deforestation purpose.