Re: Interactive parsing with Bison

[Bob Rossi]

On Fri, Jun 23, 2006 at 09:20:00AM -0500, Satya wrote:
> hi,
> I was looking at some of the visual parser generator tools today - I
> discovered Anagram (http://www.parsifalsoft.com), and Visual Parse ++
> (http://sand-stone.com) . These tools can generate LALR parsers like
> Bison but also come with a nice visual interface to single step
> through parses. You compose and debug grammars through an IDE.
> Unfortunately both programs are non-free.
> 
> I am considering the possibility of building a free IDE for Bison with
> at least the following abilities :
> 
> 1. Single step through a test input file and obtain a trace (like the
> one produced by a %debug directive. But now it will break after each
> step and wait for user input)
> 
> 2. Alter input before proceeding to the next step.
> 
> 3. Set breakpoints in the input and parse until break point is reached.
> 
> 4. Watch the stack, current state, look-aheads at each state.

This sounds like it would be really easy to do with my push parser patch.
You could parse one token at a time, and then view all the global bison
variables and states by getting access to them somehow.
You could embed this into any IDE. 

Does that sound correct?

Bob Rossi