COMPILING DOMAIN-SPECIFIC LANGUAGE CODE TO GENERATE EXECUTABLE CODE TARGETING AN APPROPRIATE TYPE OF PROCESSOR OF A NETWORK DEVICE

Systems and methods for programming a network device using a domain-specific language (DSL) are provided. According to one embodiment, source code in a form of a DSL, describing a slow-path task that is to be performed by a network device, is received by a processing resource. A determination is made regarding one or more types of processors are available within the network device to implement the slow-path task. For each portion of the source code, a preferred type of processor is determined by which the portion of the source code would be most efficiently implemented. When the preferred type of processor is available within the network device, executable code is generated targeting the preferred type of processor based on the portion of the source code; otherwise, intermediate code is generated in a form of a high-level programming language, targeting a general purpose processor of the network device.