Re: [boost] Interest in a Recursive Descent Parsing Library

From: christopher diggins (cdiggins_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-12-24 02:13:03

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matt Hurd" <matt.hurd_at_[hidden]>
To: <boost_at_[hidden]>
Sent: Friday, December 24, 2004 1:45 AM
Subject: Re: [boost] Interest in a Recursive Descent Parsing Library

> On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 18:53:54 -0500, christopher diggins
> <cdiggins_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>> I realize that there is of course already the boost::spirit library for
>> parsing, but I have recently released another recursive descent parsing
>> library with a substantially different design. The YARD parser requires
>> grammar productions to be defined as meta-functions and does not use
>> operator overloading. The code base is quite a bit smaller, and I 
>> personally
>> find the library easier to use than Spirit (of course I am very biased). 
>> The
>> home page at http://yard-parser.sf.net/ . Would there be any interest in
>> this of library for Boost? TIA
>
> Chris,
>
> I like Spirit and have a production system that parses a particular
> vendors data packets using it.  Works well.  My only real complaint
> about Spirit is that it is quite a slow parser.  This could be
> improved by having first / follow set kind of things without an
> interface change.  Spirit is quite good at representing the LL
> grammars you normal deal with when doing RDP.
>
> Do you have an example of two small grammars that might highlight why
> YARD is better?

Hi Matt,

I would not say YARD is a better parser than Spirit, it is designed with 
quite different goals. YARD is designed to be compact and flexible. 
Concerning "first/follow set kind of things" I am not sure what you mean. I 
know that the YARD parser makes it very easy to write custom rules which 
could possibly allow what you are looking for. In terms of a grammar example 
the YARD release contains an XML grammar but I am not sure precisely how to 
express an XML grammar in Spirit.

Christopher Diggins
http://www.cdiggins.com
http://www.heron-language.com