Re: [boost] [spirit] semantic action for mismatches?

Subject: Re: [boost] [spirit] semantic action for mismatches?
From: caustik (caustik_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-01-09 21:03:45

On Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 5:58 PM, Eric Niebler <eric_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> On 1/9/2011 7:09 PM, Joel de Guzman wrote:
> > On 1/9/2011 12:36 AM, Eric Niebler wrote:
> >> On 1/7/2011 6:54 PM, caustik wrote:
> >>> I've come to notice that there seems to be a missing bit of
> >>> symmetry in spirit with regards to semantic actions.
> >>>
> >>> If a rule matches, and thus executes it's semantic action(s), but
> >>> a rule which includes that rule mismatches, there seems to be no
> >>> way to "unwind" the code executed down the chain. For example, if
> >>> one of your semantic actions allocates memory or increments a
> >>> reference count, how do you free / release that reference in the
> >>> mismatch scenario? I've thought about using something like a
> >>> shared_ptr, but it seems like that gets pretty sloppy and
> >>> unnatural. Is there something you can think of that would work?
> >>
> >> Just for reference, xpressive doesn't have this problem because
> >> actions are executed lazily. When a sub-pattern matches, its action
> >> is placed on a queue. If the pattern matching engine then needs to
> >> backtrack, the action is un-queued. Only when the *whole* pattern
> >> matches successfully is the entire action sequence executed ... in
> >> order, of course.
> >
> > We've considered that approach before, but what do you really mean
> > by sub-pattern?
>
> Anything that isn't the outermost pattern-match.
>
> > AFAICT, lazily evaluating actions can only be done
> > at the topmost (start) node since a sub-parser cannot really know
> > that it will be rolled back.
>
> Correct.
>
> > Alas, that approach does not work well
> > with fully typed attributed grammars and type-erased rules.
>
> I don't know about the "fully typed attributed" part, but type-erasure
> has nothing to do with it. Xpressive regexes are also type-erased. Only
> regex algorithms begin the pattern match. That entry point is what sets
> up the action context, and only the end state of the outermost regex
> causes the chain of actions to execute. Trust me, it works.
>
>
So is it possible for "sub-patterns" to be typed (like synthesized
attributes in Spirit), and if so, how?

I'm also curious what the difference performance characteristics are (Spirit
/ Xpressive).