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Scannerless Boolean Parser
Adam Megacz <megacz@cs.berkeley.edu>
updated 27-May-2007
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Requirements
Java 1.5.0
The core grammar structures will always require generics (and thus
Java 1.5 to compile and probably at least that version in order to
run, although there are some hacks out there that might make it
possible to execute the compiled bytecode on Java 1.2+).
Being able to run a "precompiled" parser for a fixed grammar on any
jdk1.1+ JVM is a very high priority for the near future.
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Makefile targets
make edu.berkeley.sbp.jar -- compile the code
make test -- run regression tests
make javadoc -- generate javadoc in doc/api/
make boot -- bootstrap the metagrammar by compiling tests/meta.g
into src/edu/berkeley/sbp/misc/MetaGrammar.java
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Browsing the code
Rule #1: the JavaDoc is your friend
Rule #2: the JavaDoc IS YOUR FRIEND
I've put substantially more effort into the public methods and their
corresponding javadoc comments than anything else. The generated
javadoc is by far your best bet at getting up to speed quickly.
Specifically, read the "long form" package comment for
edu.berkeley.sbp, which gets placed at the bottom of this:
doc/api/edu/berkeley/sbp/package-summary.html
README -- this file
TODO -- stuff to do in the future
src/
edu/
berkeley/
sbp/ -- core API: grammar, trees, and forests
misc -- regression testing and sample code
util -- some nifty data structures not specific to parsing
meta -- code relating to the metagrammar (meta.g)
chr -- code for parsing character streams (you want this)
doc/
jargon.txt -- read this!
api/ -- generated javadocs go here
tests/
meta.g -- the tentative metagrammar, written in itself
testcase.g -- the grammar for testcases (extends meta.g)
regression.tc -- some test cases (formatted according to testcase.g)
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Using the code
The public methods in edu.berkeley.sbp.* are considered very stable;
they are highly unlikely to change in future releases. Everything
else should be considered at-your-own-risk, especially non-public
(ie package/private/protected methods).
Currently I would not recommend extending any of the subclasses of
Element.
What I call the "tentative metagrammar" (meta.g) is definately going
to change at least somewhat in the near future, although I doubt it
would be anything drastic enough to require more than a few minutes
to update a grammar description.
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Haskell Integration
If you're using LambdaVM (the Java backend for GHC), you'll be able
to use SBP in your Haskell code. See src/SBP.lhs for more info.