jacc

This repository provides a copy of the source code for jacc, just another compiler compiler for Java. The materials here were imported from the jacc homepage and are made available here as free software under the GPL 3.0 license.

Overview

jacc is a parser generator for java. But there are already several other parser generators for Java, including CUP, Antlr, JavaCC, SableCC, Coco/R, BYACC/Java, and the Jikes Parser Generator. So why would somebody write yet another one, and why might you want to use it?

In short, what makes jacc different from other tools is its combination of the following features:

Close syntactic compatibility with Johnson's classic yacc parser generator for C (in so far as is possible given that the two tools target different languages);
Semantic compatibility with yacc: jacc generates bottom-up/shift-reduce parsers for LALR(1) grammars with disambiguating rules;
Implemented in pure Java, so it is portable and runs on many Java development platforms;
Modest additions to help users understand and debug generated parsers, including: a feature for tracing parser behavior on sample inputs, HTML output, and tests for LR(0) and SLR(1) conflicts;
Primitive support for distributing grammar descriptions across multiple files to support modular construction or extension of parsers;
A mechanism for generating syntax error messages from examples based on ideas described by Clinton Jeffery;
Generated parsers that use a technique described by Bhamidipaty and Proebsting for creating very fast yacc-compatible parsers by generating code instead of encoding the specifics of a particular parser in a set of tables as the classic yacc implementations normally do.

So, if you are looking for a yacc-compatible parser generator for Java, then perhaps jacc may meet your needs!

Installation

Installation of this software requires a suitable Java development kit as well as a copy of ant. I have used these instructions with a variety of different Java versions on a variety of different platforms.

To build, use the command ant (or ant jacc, if you prefer). This will create a file jacc.jar in the dist/ folder that you should move to a suitable directory on your machine. After this:

On Windows: Copy the batch file scripts/jacc.bat to a directory on your path. You should edit this file so that the string %JACC_PATH% is replaced with the absolute path of the directory containing jacc.jar (or else set the environment variable JACC_PATH to point to that directory).
On Unix: Copy the file scripts/jacc to a directory on your path. You should edit this file so that the string $JACC_PATH is replaced with the absolute path of the directory containing jacc.jar (or else set the environment variable JACC_PATH to point to that directory).

After the appropriate files have been installed, you can use the command ant clean to delete temporary files that were constructed during the installation process.

History

jacc was written by Mark P Jones at the end of 1999 for use in his class on compiler construction at the beginning of 2000. It has been used in several different classes and projects since then, but has not yet been widely distributed. Comments and suggestions that might help to improve either the tool or the documentation are always welcome!

License

Early attempts to obtain approval for open source distribution of jacc were delayed for many years. This version, corresponding very closely to the original distribution from April 2004 but with the addition of extra code for generating dot descriptions of generated machines, is distributed under a GPL license; please see the file LICENSE for more details.

Known issues

This version of jacc has been in use for many years and is believed to work well in most cases. There is, however, a known issue in the treatment of %nonassoc directives that will be fixed in a future update.

zipwith / jacc