Re: Parser generator tools (Was Re: aflexx/ayacc)

[Brian Rogoff <bpr@shell5.ba.best.com>]

On 16 Mar 1999, Dan Johnston D.B. wrote:

> In <7cjajp$ni91@ftp.kvaerner.com> "Tarjei Tjstheim Jensen" <tarjei.jensen@kvaerner.no> writes:
> >Brian Rogoff wrote in message ...
> >>Hi,
> >> Has anyone created any parser generator tools for Ada (95) besides
> >>aflex/ayacc which they'd be willing to release under some sort of
> >>"open source" license? In particular, I'd be interested in an LLi(k)
style
> >>parsergen like ANTLR or PRECC or even RDP for Ada-95, since I'm basically
> >>a recursively decent fellow. I'm willing to help debug code if necessary.
> 
> >There is something called Cocktail that was released a few years ago that may
> >interest you. The commercial version may still be available (at that time it
> >generated modula-2). If you need something to do you could port cocktail to
> >Ada.
> 
> I have converted several of the "Cocktail" tools, from the last release of
> Cocktail prior to its commercialisation, to generate Ada-95 as well as the
> Modula-2 and C, which it generated as originally distributed. 
> 
> The following tools have been converted to generate Ada (95):
>    rex  - lexical generator
>    lalr - parser generator
>    cg - attribute grammar system (comprising
>               ast - abstract syntax tree system
>               ag - attribute evaluator.)
>    puma - a pattern matching system for manipulating attributed trees.
> 
> Unfortunately, I have not converted "ell" the recursive descent parser
> generator, which would be the tool of interest to the initiator of this
> thread.

Thanks for catching on! If I were interested in yet another LR parser gen
I'd stick with ayacc. I'd really like something like PRECC or ANTLR for
Ada. I'd also like the tool to be written in Ada so that I could
recompile as necessary. I don't have access to an M2 compiler. 

I can of course write all of my code in C, using C tools, but I'd like to 
introduce Ada into my tool chain. Of course, I can hand code parsers too, 
or write the LL(k) gen myself, but that seems like a waste of time. 

-- Brian