[antlr-interest] JNetStream's NPL and ANTLR

[Mark Bednarczyk]

I just want to introduce myself to the ANTLR group as I will probably have
lots of questions and would like suggestions as to how best utilize ANTLR in
my own OpenSource project JNetStream.

http://jnetstream.sf.org

I am not a network programmer by trade but by hobby. My profession is as
Network Analyst and Architect. So naturally most of the code I produce has
to do with "networks".

JNetStream is a packet decoder that uses a special purpose language called
NPL (Network Protocol Language). The language is very C/JAVA like but with
specific language statements and keywords that are geared towards helping
network gurus write Network Protocol Definitions. I build my own scanners,
parsers, linker and interpreter from scratch, but I find that I have to fix
a lot of wrong turns I made in the low level compiler area. The NPL language
itself has withstood some pretty hefty tests and requirements from the
network community and proved very resilient.

I have a user guide that goes into JNetStream in general and goes over the
NPL syntax and constructs:

http://jnetstream.sourceforge.net/docs/userguide.html

My bigger goal is to allow users to write and contribute NPL definitions for
all network protocols and binary structures known to man through a special
database. Then updates can be downloaded of just the definitions into
already deployed installations of my decoder. Companies already write
definitions for their custom protocols and use NPL to describe them.  Also
further language enhancements will be made to allow users to build many
different high level analysis algorithms that can analyze captured network
traffic. Again all downloadable from central database I call netrepository.

The database and tools will reside at this address. http://netrepository.org
(Currently website is empty!)


I'm still looking through ANTLR's documentation and it looks like a
wonderful fit for my purpose. So expect a few questions from me over next
coming weeks. I welcome any input as well.

Cheers,
mark....
voytechs at yahoo.com


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