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Re: Newbie Question re: Transforming a domain specific language.
From: |
Laurence Finston |
Subject: |
Re: Newbie Question re: Transforming a domain specific language. |
Date: |
Mon, 22 Nov 2004 22:42:56 +0100 |
User-agent: |
IMHO/0.98.3+G (Webmail for Roxen) |
Matt Friedman wrote:
>
> I'm quite the newbie here. I'm an experienced programmer but have
> recently found a need to implement a small domain specific language.
> If this is the wrong list or a bad topic perhaps you can
> let me know and steer me in the right direction.
If you get a usable answer, it was the right list.
>
> So finally, to my question: is this a job for a language
> generator/parser
I think so, however if you don't mind a bit of pedantry, I prefer the term
compiler generator and would call it a job for a scanner (or lexer)
and a parser. Generally speaking, I believe problems that don't require
organizing information in a hierarchical structure, such as some forms of
macro processing, can be solved with a scanner alone, while those that do
require parsing. However, I suspect that what you call "[executing] a series
of steps in a linear fashion" may actually require a parser, depending on how
your sets are specified or generated.
I may be biased, after all, this is a mailing list for GNU Bison, but I think
Bison would be a good tool for solving this problem, possibly together with
Flex.
> has anyone been faced with this challenge
I dunno. Probably.
> and how might I approach it? Any pointers would be greatly
> appreciated.
Start hacking. If you run into a problem, ask for help.
Laurence Finston