[antlr-interest] ANTLR version 2.X to ANTLR version 3.X (the horror, the horror)
Raphael Reitzig
r_reitzi at cs.uni-kl.de
Sat Aug 9 04:07:40 PDT 2008
Although I am neither an expert nor long on this list, I observe that
some simple questions come up very often. Literals in parser rules,
implicit setup through ordering, Lexer/Parser concept (who does what
when?) - those are issues confusing many.
I think the problem often lies with ANTLRs approachability. It is very
easy to write down a grammar in common EBNF, push some things around
("Oww, if I write this rule name in capitals, it works!") and get, for
easy examples, what you want. Then, you think yourself a rather
experienced user and proceed to your real problem, that which brought
you to ANTLR. You fuck up. There is much to know about the tool and
about grammars in general (you have to know what ambiguity _is_ before
you can care about it) before you can be really productive. But ANTLR
itself, exspecially with great ANTLRWorks, tends to suggest "Just do
it!", what is not the case today.
Regards
Raphael
"Gavin Lambert" <antlr at mirality.co.nz> wrote (Sat Aug 9 00:58:02 2008):
> At 08:07 9/08/2008, Foust wrote:
>> A v3.1 "gotchas" page, along with an Antlr Cookbook would probably
>> go a long way toward helping those new to v3 specifically, and
>> ANTLR in general.
>
> While the pain is fresh in your memory, you could always write such
> a page yourself :) (It is a wiki, after all.)
>
> It's much harder for people who are familiar with a product to
> realise the traps that people get into when they're just learning it.
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