Reply to: parse2.com

[OrangeHopper]

Hello Trimbo,

To date I have concentrated on the use of aParse to parse messages and not put any time into trying it on a computer language. It should work for a computer language by virtue of the fact it uses a BNF grammar.

I will look into this and send you a PM when I have something more concrete to say.

OH.

[Trimbo]

Looks interesting - a few months ago I was checking out JavaCC/ANTLR etc to try and produce a Sybase TSQL parser and really didn't take to any of them. In the end I just hand crafted a parser (I know - yuk) but I really should redo it using parser generator tools (such as yours).

Anyway, shameless self promotion: http://code.google.com/p/sybaseparser/

Have you tried implementing a complex grammer such as TSQL using your tool? It would be a good test of how flexible / scalable it is.

T

[Cowboy Bob]

Who says I won't fix a bug?
Who says I won't consider a change for a price?

There's no mention of any kind of support on your site.

[OrangeHopper]

Who says I won't fix a bug?
Who says I won't consider a change for a price?

[Cowboy Bob]

nice try. But like I said he is clever. If it was me I would of posted the code cos i is not.

There are only two circumstances where I will use a 3rd party library in a project:-

1) It is fully commercially supported so if there is a bug or feature I need, the owning company will attend to making the changes/fix.
2) I have the source code so I can do the above myself.

Unfortunately OHs project doesn't meet those criteria (yet).

[TheRightStuff]

Any chance of the code? Or are you unable to open source it? I prefer my libraries to come with source code.

nice try. But like I said he is clever. If it was me I would of posted the code cos i is not.

[OrangeHopper]

Sorry but for the time being I'm not going to make the code available.

[Cowboy Bob]

Any chance of the code? Or are you unable to open source it? I prefer my libraries to come with source code.

[OrangeHopper]

Ta Cowboy.

Obviously let me know via the parse2 email if you have any questions or find any bugs.

[Cowboy Bob]

The main difference that I was interested in was that Augmented BNF has "variable repetition".

<a>*<b>element

This is not present in Extended BNF which most other parsers use.

Sounds interesting. I'll play around with it a bit, and you never know, it might end up on my "possible solutions" list.

[MrsGoof]

Don't you mean, "You is like Threaded".

If that were to be true then more pies would be required

[OrangeHopper]

I wish i was that clever. you is like einstein in it.

Don't you mean, "You is like Threaded".

[TheRightStuff]

I wish i was that clever. you is like einstein in it.

[OrangeHopper]

Hello Cowboy,

When I started out I looked at ANTLR and JavaCC but couldn't get either of them to deal with the types of protocol/messages I was trying to parse. This may have been due to ignorance of the products but I then started looking at parsers in general and didn't try them again.

The main difference that I was interested in was that Augmented BNF has "variable repetition".

<a>*<b>element

This is not present in Extended BNF which most other parsers use.

I have been working on a messaging system for a few years where the messages do not comform to a grammar where every field is delimited by a punctuation character. Identifying one field from the next is often based on length and format which is much easier to define with Augmented BNF.

The other comment is that I found the above compiler compilers relatively difficult to master. I wanted a system where the grammar file was all you needed. Probably find I will learn the lessons they learned many years ago and mine will get more complicated.

Sorry, not a particularly well thought out answer but it is the power of the "variable repetition" construct that I needed.

[Cowboy Bob]

Website looks fine and the project looks really interesting. Before really diving in, I've got a couple of questions:-

I've used ANTLR before - http://www.antlr.org/

What are the main differences between your approach and theirs?
Why should I choose your software over ANTLR?