xgeek116
I need to create an authorization system in Elixir, to do it I will generate a policy containing some permissions but in AST syntax and there will be many client consumers (in different languages JavaScript, Python, Elixir etc..) to verify that permissions (after transforming the ASTs to code).
So my question us, is there some generic AST syntax for all programming languages ? or a syntax per language ?
Where Next?
Trending in Questions
Other Trending Topics
Latest on Elixir Forum
Sponsor Spotlight
Catch errors, track performance, monitor hosts and more.
Categories:
Sub Categories:
Forums
Popular Tags
- #ecto
- #liveview
- #troubleshooting
- #learning-elixir
- #library
- #deployment
- #erlang
- #testing
- #genserver
- #mix
- #absinthe
- #remote-other
- #otp
- #plug
- #how-to-question
- #macros
- #postgres
- #elixirconf
- #channels
- #exunit
- #discussion
- #code-sync
- #podcasts
- #javascript
- #onsite
- #dialyzer
- #docker
- #authentication
- #ai
- #umbrella
- #full-time-contract
- #podcasts-by-brainlid
- #ecto-query
- #blog-post
- #elixirconf-us
- #elixir-ls
- #phoenix_html
- #iex
- #graphql
- #genstage
- #websockets
- #supervisor
- #advent-of-code
- #distillery
- #processes
- #elixirconf-eu
- #api
- #forms
- #security
- #metaprogramming
Our Sponsors
Build Elixir applications with speed and confidence.
We build reliable cloud platforms for business-critical systems.
Catch errors, track performance, monitor hosts and more.
Error tracking, logs, uptime, and Just Enough APM. Built for developers.
Elixir, Erlang & BEAM conferences from Code Sync - join us in 2026!
Practical resources that improve the lives of professional developers.
Bringing learning, work and compliance together since 1987.
Producing high quality Elixir screencasts since 2017.
The team behind Membrane, Popcorn, LiveDebugger. Available for hire.
Courses that'll move you from confusion to "Aha, now I get it!"
Showing Posts 1 to 3- Show Best Posts
- Show All (oldest first)
- Show All (newest first)
benwilson512
There is not. Most languages have their own AST representations.
LostKobrakai
Languages often don’t share even more basic things like supported datatypes. AST of languages is made up of datatypes supported by each individual language. Therefore ASTs usually are not sharable.
E.g. elixir uses atoms extensively, which are a concept only available on the beam. There are some languages, which have similar datatypes to atoms, but there are also many, which don’t have anything comparable.
You’re probably better sharing data (e.g. json is commonly supported) + language specific code parsing/using that data, rather than trying to abstract through some AST.
derpycoder
What I believe you are looking for is a platform agnostic way to represent the business logic, that is Authorisation rules, scopes and policy.
Instead of inventing a language which might not be Turing complete, or would require training. You should have a look at the available options and ways it can be done!!
See how to dynamically write business logic on web; opus, exop, espresso.
There’s also a great talk by Ben Church:
And as @LostKobrakai mentioned, you have to write a decoder in each language to allow the business logic to be reused.