[antlr-interest] Review of "Language Implementation Patterns" (Terence Parr)

[John Grout]

> Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:51:29 -0700
> From: Terence Parr <parrt at cs.usfca.edu>
> Subject: [antlr-interest] Review of "Language Implementation Patterns"
> ...
> http://www.i-programmer.info/bookreviews/20-theory/1097-language-implementation-patterns.html


To me, the reviewer lost his credibility when all he chose to cite as
an alternative to ANTLR for DSLs was the kind of Microsoft API that
makes its users passive consumers of Microsoft technology.  It's not
solely about an individual API's or tool's restriction to the Windows
environment: it is also the likelihood that the API's or tool's EULA
prohibits its use in competition with Microsoft's other products.

Imagine the absurdity of Ter licensing ANTLR on terms forbidding
its use to create a tool that competed with ANTLR or related software
(e.g., ANTLRWorks).  In the Microsoft world, those sorts of terms
are not an absurdity: they are a reality and, at least for commercial
software development, must be investigated before a particular
API or tool is used.

John R. Grout
j.grout at computer.org