[antlr-interest] SEEMS NOBODY HERE LIKE TO HELP OTHERS

[David Minor]

Thanks Graham,
For you thoughtful advice, I'll consider everything you said in future
postings. You get the same errors I get on my grammar.  I've done a bit of
work trying to simplify the problem and didn't succeed, it would just push
the error down a line.  I ported the grammar to Gold (took about two hours),
and Golds LARL parser clued me in to a couple of ambiguities that I needed
to fix. If I was to continue this project in Antlr I would re-port the
Grammar back with my fixes and see how that works. I have a feeling the
error messages are so far off it's hard to find.
Regards,
David

On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 11:31 AM, Graham Wideman
<gwlist at grahamwideman.com>wrote:

> David:
>
> > I also have received scant (or no help) on this forum
>
> I see that you started two threads.  In one, Jim Idle gave you a thoughtful
> response, and suggested some questions to pursue.  You did post some more,
> and
> nobody answered so far as I can see. That could be because the subject line
> on
> your post got wrapped after the first word, so that it appears as just
> "saving"
> -- not a title that would attract much attention.
>
> Your second thread was last week "stuck on tree parsing", in which you
> posted
> two grammars as attachments of 300 and 500 lines each, and then asked:
> "PearGrammerTree.g complains about an undefined rule, that is defined right
> above it" ...  without mentioning what rule you are talking about.
>
> So here you miss out on the possibility that someone could just glance at
> the
> problem area, in the body of the email, and spot a problem. Instead, you're
> obliging someone to have to fetch the attachments and run ANTLR or AW on
> them
> (you don't mention which, what version etc) just to see where there might
> be a
> problem, with no guarantee it's even the same problem you're seeing.
>
> In short, doubtless inadvertantly, you happened to present your messages in
> a
> manner most likely not to be quickly answerable by knowledgeable list
> members.
>
> If you had simply mentioned which rule had the problem, and inserted the
> relevant part of the file in your email (so that looking at the attachment
> was
> optional) then it is possible that someone could just eyeball it and spot
> an
> obvious problem.
>
> I should also say that one customary line of troubleshooting advice is to
> whittle down the troublesome sample so that it's much smaller. Often that
> causes the problem to become more conspicuous, and even if not makes for a
> much
> better example to ask for help about.
>
> For what it's worth, I did just run ANTLR on your files, and on
> PearGramerTree.g it gave not just one error, but the following:
>
> =============================
> F:\Proj\ANTLR\Test\Minor>java -jar D:\Antlr20090923\antlr-3.2.jar
> PearGrammerTree.g
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:117:6: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:117:6: unexpected token: roi_identifier
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:123:1: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:123:1: unexpected token: data_scope_expr
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:124:6: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:124:6: unexpected token: IDENTIFIER
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:127:1: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:127:1: unexpected token: parameter
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:129:20: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:129:20: expecting RPAREN, found '|'
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:138:2: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:138:2: expecting RPAREN, found ';'
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:141:1: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:141:1: unexpected token: param_list
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:142:6: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:142:6: unexpected token: parameter
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:145:1: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:145:1: unexpected token: input_param_list
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:147:2: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:147:2: expecting RPAREN, found ';'
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:149:1: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:149:1: unexpected token: output_param_list
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:307:4: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:307:4: unexpected token: binding_expr
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:315:1: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:315:1: unexpected token: expression
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:317:2: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:317:2: expecting RPAREN, found ';'
> error(100): PearGrammerTree.g:319:1: syntax error: antlr:
> PearGrammerTree.g:319:1: unexpected token: program
> error(106): PearGrammerTree.g:109:17: reference to undefined rule:
> param_list
> error(106): PearGrammerTree.g:150:17: reference to undefined rule:
> param_list
> error(106): PearGrammerTree.g:155:6: reference to undefined rule:
> output_param_list
> error(106): PearGrammerTree.g:154:22: reference to undefined rule:
> output_param_list
> error(106): PearGrammerTree.g:177:14: reference to undefined rule:
> data_scope_expr
> error(106): PearGrammerTree.g:173:11: reference to undefined rule:
> data_scope_expr
> error(106): PearGrammerTree.g:154:5: reference to undefined rule:
> input_param_list
> error(106): PearGrammerTree.g:320:4: reference to undefined rule:
> expression
> error(106): PearGrammerTree.g:285:11: reference to undefined rule:
> data_scope_expr
> error(106): PearGrammerTree.g:156:5: reference to undefined rule:
> input_param_list
> ===============================
>
> Many of these report undefined rules not because that particular rule has a
> problem per se, but because some rule it depends on has a problem. It's
> probably worth looking at the "unexpected token" errors with a view to
> determining if the syntax you've used is legit.
>
> -- Graham
>
> At 10/16/2009 10:16 AM, David Minor wrote:
> >
> > I wouldn't shout about it, but I also have received scant (or no help) on
> > this forum. I'm not a parasite, I purchased the book, but... well... I'm
> > using Gold now and so far so good. I check back every now and then to see
> if
> > I got and answer. The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this message.
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.antlr.org/pipermail/antlr-interest/attachments/20091017/5938e1cb/attachment.html