treetop 1.2.3 → 1.2.4

data/README

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ The first step in using Treetop is defining a grammar in a file with the `.treet
 Next, you start filling your grammar with rules. Each rule associates a name with a parsing expression, like the following:
 
     # my_grammar.treetop
+    # You can use a .tt extension instead if you wish
     grammar MyGrammar
       rule hello
         'hello chomsky'
@@ -27,10 +28,12 @@ The first rule becomes the *root* of the grammar, causing its expression to be m
     require 'rubygems'
     require 'treetop'
     Treetop.load 'my_grammar'
+    # or just:
+    # require 'my_grammar'                     # This works because Polyglot hooks "require" to find and load Treetop files
     
     parser = MyGrammarParser.new
-    puts parser.parse('hello chomsky').success?         # => true
-    puts parser.parse('silly generativists!').success?  # => false
+    puts parser.parse('hello chomsky')         # => Treetop::Runtime::SyntaxNode
+    puts parser.parse('silly generativists!')  # => nil
 
 Users of *regular expressions* will find parsing expressions familiar. They share the same basic purpose, matching strings against patterns. However, parsing expressions can recognize a broader category of languages than their less expressive brethren. Before we get into demonstrating that, lets cover some basics. At first parsing expressions won't seem much different. Trust that they are.
 
@@ -50,10 +53,12 @@ Ordered choices are *composite expressions*, which allow for any of several sube
     end
     
     # fragment of use_grammar.rb
-    puts parser.parse('hello chomsky').success?         # => true
-    puts parser.parse('hello lambek').success?          # => true
-    puts parser.parse('silly generativists!').success?  # => false
-    
+    puts parser.parse('hello chomsky')         # => Treetop::Runtime::SyntaxNode
+    puts parser.parse('hello lambek')          # => Treetop::Runtime::SyntaxNode
+    puts parser.parse('silly generativists!')  # => nil
+
+Note that once a choice rule has matched the text using a particular alternative at a particular location in the input and hence has succeeded, that choice will never be reconsidered, even if the chosen alternative causes another rule to fail where a later alternative wouldn't have. It's always a later alternative, since the first to succeed is final - why keep looking when you've found what you wanted? This is a feature of PEG parsers that you need to understand if you're going to succeed in using Treetop. In order to memoize success and failures, such decisions cannot be reversed. Luckily Treetop provides a variety of clever ways you can tell it to avoid making the wrong decisions. But more on that later.
+
 Sequences
 ---------
 Sequences are composed of other parsing expressions separated by spaces. Using sequences, we can tighten up the above grammar.
@@ -65,7 +70,9 @@ Sequences are composed of other parsing expressions separated by spaces. Using s
       end
     end
 
-Node the use of parentheses to override the default precedence rules, which bind sequences more tightly than choices.
+Note the use of parentheses to override the default precedence rules, which bind sequences more tightly than choices.
+
+Once the whole sequence has been matched, the result is memoized and the details of the match will not be reconsidered for that location in the input.
 
 Nonterminal Symbols
 -------------------
@@ -94,6 +101,47 @@ The true power of this facility, however, is unleashed when writing *recursive e
 
 The `parens` expression simply states that a `parens` is a set of parentheses surrounding another `parens` expression or, if that doesn't match, the empty string. If you are uncomfortable with recursion, its time to get comfortable, because it is the basis of language. Here's a tip: Don't try and imagine the parser circling round and round through the same rule. Instead, imagine the rule is *already* defined while you are defining it. If you imagine that `parens` already matches a string of matching parentheses, then its easy to think of `parens` as an open and closing parentheses around another set of matching parentheses, which conveniently, you happen to be defining. You know that `parens` is supposed to represent a string of matched parentheses, so trust in that meaning, even if you haven't fully implemented it yet.
 
+Repetition
+----------
+Any item in a rule may be followed by a '+' or a '*' character, signifying one-or-more and zero-or-more occurrences of that item. Beware though; the match is greedy, and if it matches too many items and causes subsequent items in the sequence to fail, the number matched will never be reconsidered. Here's a simple example of a rule that will never succeed:
+
+    # toogreedy.treetop
+    grammar TooGreedy
+      rule a_s
+      	'a'* 'a'
+      end
+    end
+
+The 'a'* will always eat up any 'a's that follow, and the subsequent 'a' will find none there, so the whole rule will fail. You might need to use lookahead to avoid matching too much.
+
+Negative Lookahead
+------------------
+
+When you need to ensure that the following item *doesn't* match in some case where it might otherwise, you can use negat!ve lookahead, which is an item preceeded by a ! - here's an example:
+
+    # postcondition.treetop
+    grammar PostCondition
+      rule conditional_sentence
+        ( !conditional_keyword word )+ conditional_keyword [ \t]+ word*
+      end
+
+      rule word
+        ([a-zA-Z]+ [ \t]+) 
+      end
+
+      rule conditional_keyword
+        'if' / 'while' / 'until'
+      end
+    end
+
+Even though the rule `word` would match any of the conditional keywords, the first words of a conditional_sentence must not be conditional_keywords. The negative lookahead prevents that matching, and prevents the repetition from matching too much input. Note that the lookahead may be a grammar rule of any complexity, including one that isn't used elsewhere in your grammar.
+
+Positive lookahead
+------------------
+
+Sometimes you want an item to match, but only if the *following* text would match some pattern. You don't want to consume that following text, but if it's not there, you want this rule to fail. You can append a positive lookahead like this to a rule by appending the lookahead rule preceeded by an & character.
+
+
 
 Features to cover in the talk
 =============================
@@ -114,5 +162,3 @@ Features to cover in the talk
 * Use of super within within labels
 * Grammar composition with include
 * Use of super with grammar composition
-
-

data/Rakefile

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ end
 
 gemspec = Gem::Specification.new do |s|
   s.name = "treetop"
-  s.version = "1.2.3"
+  s.version = "1.2.4"
   s.author = "Nathan Sobo"
   s.email = "nathansobo@gmail.com"
   s.homepage = "http://functionalform.blogspot.com"

data/doc/contributing_and_planned_features.markdown

@@ -3,9 +3,10 @@ I've created a <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/treetop-dev">Google Group
 treetop-dev@google-groups.com
 
 #Contributing
+Visit <a href="http://github.com/nathansobo/treetop/tree/master">the Treetop repository page on GitHub</a> in your browser for more information about checking out the source code.
+
 I like to try Rubinius's policy regarding commit rights. If you submit one patch worth integrating, I'll give you commit rights. We'll see how this goes, but I think it's a good policy.
 
-The source code is currently stored in a git repository at <a href="http://repo.or.cz/w/treetop.git">http://repo.or.cz/w/treetop.git</a>
 
 ##Getting Started with the Code
 Treetop compiler is interesting in that it is implemented in itself. Its functionality revolves around `metagrammar.treetop`, which specifies the grammar for Treetop grammars. I took a hybrid approach with regard to definition of methods on syntax nodes in the metagrammar. Methods that are more syntactic in nature, like those that provide access to elements of the syntax tree, are often defined inline, directly in the grammar. More semantic methods are defined in custom node classes.

data/doc/site.rb

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ class Layout < Erector::Widget
         :type => "text/css",
         :href => "./screen.css"
         
-        text %(
+        rawtext %(
           <script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
           </script>
           <script type="text/javascript">

data/doc/sitegen.rb

@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ class Layout < Erector::Widget
 
   def bluecloth(relative_path)
     File.open(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), relative_path)) do |file|
-      text BlueCloth.new(file.read).to_html
+      rawtext BlueCloth.new(file.read).to_html
     end
   end
 

data/lib/treetop/compiler/grammar_compiler.rb

@@ -6,23 +6,35 @@ module Treetop
           target_file.write(ruby_source(source_path))
         end
       end
-      
+
+      # compile a treetop file into ruby
       def ruby_source(source_path)
-        File.open(source_path) do |source_file|
-          parser = MetagrammarParser.new
-          result = parser.parse(source_file.read)
-          unless result
-            raise RuntimeError.new(parser.failure_reason)
-          end
-          result.compile
+        ruby_source_from_string(File.read(source_path))
+      end
+
+      # compile a string containing treetop source into ruby
+      def ruby_source_from_string(s)
+        parser = MetagrammarParser.new
+        result = parser.parse(s)
+        unless result
+          raise RuntimeError.new(parser.failure_reason)
         end
+        result.compile
       end
     end
   end
 
+  # compile a treetop source file and load it
   def self.load(path)
     adjusted_path = path =~ /\.(treetop|tt)\Z/ ? path : path + '.treetop'
+    File.open(adjusted_path) do |source_file|
+      load_from_string(source_file.read)
+    end
+  end
+
+  # compile a treetop source string and load it
+  def self.load_from_string(s)
     compiler = Treetop::Compiler::GrammarCompiler.new
-    Object.class_eval(compiler.ruby_source(adjusted_path))
+    Object.class_eval(compiler.ruby_source_from_string(s))
   end
 end

data/lib/treetop/compiler/metagrammar.rb

@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ module Treetop
           r3 = _nt_space
           s1 << r3
           if r3
-            if input.index(/[A-Z]/, index) == index
+            if input.index(Regexp.new('[A-Z]'), index) == index
               r4 = (SyntaxNode).new(input, index...(index + 1))
               @index += 1
             else
@@ -324,7 +324,7 @@ module Treetop
         end
 
         i0, s0 = index, []
-        if input.index(/[A-Z]/, index) == index
+        if input.index(Regexp.new('[A-Z]'), index) == index
           r1 = (SyntaxNode).new(input, index...(index + 1))
           @index += 1
         else
@@ -523,7 +523,7 @@ module Treetop
           r2 = _nt_space
           s0 << r2
           if r2
-            if input.index(/[A-Z]/, index) == index
+            if input.index(Regexp.new('[A-Z]'), index) == index
               r3 = (SyntaxNode).new(input, index...(index + 1))
               @index += 1
             else
@@ -2508,7 +2508,7 @@ module Treetop
             else
               i5, s5 = index, []
               i6 = index
-              if input.index(/[{}]/, index) == index
+              if input.index(Regexp.new('[{}]'), index) == index
                 r7 = (SyntaxNode).new(input, index...(index + 1))
                 @index += 1
               else
@@ -2691,7 +2691,7 @@ module Treetop
           return cached
         end
 
-        if input.index(/[A-Za-z_]/, index) == index
+        if input.index(Regexp.new('[A-Za-z_]'), index) == index
           r0 = (SyntaxNode).new(input, index...(index + 1))
           @index += 1
         else
@@ -2716,7 +2716,7 @@ module Treetop
         if r1
           r0 = r1
         else
-          if input.index(/[0-9]/, index) == index
+          if input.index(Regexp.new('[0-9]'), index) == index
             r2 = (SyntaxNode).new(input, index...(index + 1))
             @index += 1
           else
@@ -2841,12 +2841,7 @@ module Treetop
               break
             end
           end
-          if s2.empty?
-            self.index = i2
-            r2 = nil
-          else
-            r2 = SyntaxNode.new(input, i2...index, s2)
-          end
+          r2 = SyntaxNode.new(input, i2...index, s2)
           s0 << r2
         end
         if s0.last
@@ -2870,7 +2865,7 @@ module Treetop
           return cached
         end
 
-        if input.index(/[ \t\n\r]/, index) == index
+        if input.index(Regexp.new('[ \\t\\n\\r]'), index) == index
           r0 = (SyntaxNode).new(input, index...(index + 1))
           @index += 1
         else

data/lib/treetop/compiler/metagrammar.treetop

@@ -393,7 +393,7 @@ module Treetop
       end
 
       rule comment_to_eol
-        '#' (!"\n" .)+
+        '#' (!"\n" .)*
       end
 
       rule white

metadata

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 --- !ruby/object:Gem::Specification 
 name: treetop
 version: !ruby/object:Gem::Version 
-  version: 1.2.3
+  version: 1.2.4
 platform: ruby
 authors: 
 - Nathan Sobo
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ autorequire: treetop
 bindir: bin
 cert_chain: []
 
-date: 2008-03-07 00:00:00 -08:00
+date: 2008-06-02 00:00:00 +10:00
 default_executable: 
 dependencies: 
 - !ruby/object:Gem::Dependency 
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ extra_rdoc_files: []
 files: 
 - README
 - Rakefile
+- lib/metagrammar.rb
 - lib/treetop
 - lib/treetop/bootstrap_gen_1_metagrammar.rb
 - lib/treetop/compiler
@@ -82,20 +83,6 @@ files:
 - doc/index.markdown
 - doc/pitfalls_and_advanced_techniques.markdown
 - doc/semantic_interpretation.markdown
-- doc/site
-- doc/site/contribute.html
-- doc/site/images
-- doc/site/images/bottom_background.png
-- doc/site/images/middle_background.png
-- doc/site/images/paren_language_output.png
-- doc/site/images/pivotal.gif
-- doc/site/images/top_background.png
-- doc/site/index.html
-- doc/site/pitfalls_and_advanced_techniques.html
-- doc/site/screen.css
-- doc/site/semantic_interpretation.html
-- doc/site/syntactic_recognition.html
-- doc/site/using_in_ruby.html
 - doc/site.rb
 - doc/sitegen.rb
 - doc/syntactic_recognition.markdown
@@ -133,7 +120,7 @@ required_rubygems_version: !ruby/object:Gem::Requirement
 requirements: []
 
 rubyforge_project: 
-rubygems_version: 1.0.1
+rubygems_version: 1.1.0
 signing_key: 
 specification_version: 2
 summary: A Ruby-based text parsing and interpretation DSL

data/doc/site/contribute.html

@@ -1,123 +0,0 @@
-<html><head><link type="text/css" href="./screen.css" rel="stylesheet" />
-          <script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
-          </script>
-          <script type="text/javascript">
-          _uacct = "UA-3418876-1";
-          urchinTracker();
-          </script>
-        </head><body><div id="top"><div id="main_navigation"><ul><li><a href="syntactic_recognition.html">Documentation</a></li><li>Contribute</li><li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li></ul></div></div><div id="middle"><div id="content"><h1>Google Group</h1>
-
-<p>I've created a <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/treetop-dev">Google Group</a> as a better place to organize discussion and development.
-treetop-dev@google-groups.com</p>
-
-<h1>Contributing</h1>
-
-<p>I like to try Rubinius's policy regarding commit rights. If you submit one patch worth integrating, I'll give you commit rights. We'll see how this goes, but I think it's a good policy.</p>
-
-<p>The source code is currently stored in a git repository at <a href="http://repo.or.cz/w/treetop.git">http://repo.or.cz/w/treetop.git</a></p>
-
-<h2>Getting Started with the Code</h2>
-
-<p>Treetop compiler is interesting in that it is implemented in itself. Its functionality revolves around <code>metagrammar.treetop</code>, which specifies the grammar for Treetop grammars. I took a hybrid approach with regard to definition of methods on syntax nodes in the metagrammar. Methods that are more syntactic in nature, like those that provide access to elements of the syntax tree, are often defined inline, directly in the grammar. More semantic methods are defined in custom node classes.</p>
-
-<p>Iterating on the metagrammar is tricky. The current testing strategy uses the last stable version of Treetop to parse the version under test. Then the version under test is used to parse and functionally test the various pieces of syntax it should recognize and translate to Ruby. As you change <code>metagrammar.treetop</code> and its associated node classes, note that the node classes you are changing are also used to support the previous stable version of the metagrammar, so must be kept backward compatible until such time as a new stable version can be produced to replace it.</p>
-
-<h2>Tests</h2>
-
-<p>Most of the compiler's tests are functional in nature. The grammar under test is used to parse and compile piece of sample code. Then I attempt to parse input with the compiled output and test its results.</p>
-
-<h1>What Needs to be Done</h1>
-
-<h2>Small Stuff</h2>
-
-<ul>
-<li>Improve the <code>tt</code> command line tool to allow <code>.treetop</code> extensions to be elided in its arguments.</li>
-<li>Generate and load temp files with <code>Treetop.load</code> rather than evaluating strings to improve stack trace readability.</li>
-<li>Allow <code>do/end</code> style blocks as well as curly brace blocks. This was originally omitted because I thought it would be confusing. It probably isn't.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<h2>Big Stuff</h2>
-
-<h4>Transient Expressions</h4>
-
-<p>Currently, every parsing expression instantiates a syntax node. This includes even very simple parsing expressions, like single characters. It is probably unnecessary for every single expression in the parse to correspond to its own syntax node, so much savings could be garnered from a transient declaration that instructs the parser only to attempt a match without instantiating nodes.</p>
-
-<h3>Generate Rule Implementations in C</h3>
-
-<p>Parsing expressions are currently compiled into simple Ruby source code that comprises the body of parsing rules, which are translated into Ruby methods. The generator could produce C instead of Ruby in the body of these method implementations.</p>
-
-<h3>Global Parsing State and Semantic Backtrack Triggering</h3>
-
-<p>Some programming language grammars are not entirely context-free, requiring that global state dictate the behavior of the parser in certain circumstances. Treetop does not currently expose explicit parser control to the grammar writer, and instead automatically constructs the syntax tree for them. A means of semantic parser control compatible with this approach would involve callback methods defined on parsing nodes. Each time a node is successfully parsed it will be given an opportunity to set global state and optionally trigger a parse failure on <em>extrasyntactic</em> grounds. Nodes will probably need to define an additional method that undoes their changes to global state when there is a parse failure and they are backtracked.</p>
-
-<p>Here is a sketch of the potential utility of such mechanisms. Consider the structure of YAML, which uses indentation to indicate block structure.</p>
-
-<pre><code>level_1:
-  level_2a:
-  level_2b:
-    level_3a:
-  level_2c:
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>Imagine a grammar like the following:</p>
-
-<pre><code>rule yaml_element
-  name ':' block
-  /
-  name ':' value
-end
-
-rule block
-  indent yaml_elements outdent
-end
-
-rule yaml_elements
-  yaml_element (samedent yaml_element)*
-end
-
-rule samedent
-  newline spaces {
-    def after_success(parser_state)
-      spaces.length == parser_state.indent_level
-    end
-  }
-end
-
-rule indent
-  newline spaces {
-    def after_success(parser_state)
-      if spaces.length == parser_state.indent_level + 2
-        parser_state.indent_level += 2
-        true
-      else
-        false # fail the parse on extrasyntactic grounds
-      end
-    end
-
-    def undo_success(parser_state)
-      parser_state.indent_level -= 2
-    end
-  }
-end
-
-rule outdent
-  newline spaces {
-    def after_success(parser_state)
-      if spaces.length == parser_state.indent_level - 2
-        parser_state.indent_level -= 2
-        true
-      else
-        false # fail the parse on extrasyntactic grounds
-      end
-    end
-
-    def undo_success(parser_state)
-      parser_state.indent_level += 2
-    end
-  }
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>In this case a block will be detected only if a change in indentation warrants it. Note that this change in the state of indentation must be undone if a subsequent failure causes this node not to ultimately be incorporated into a successful result.</p>
-
-<p>I am by no means sure that the above sketch is free of problems, or even that this overall strategy is sound, but it seems like a promising path.</p></div></div><div id="bottom"></div></body></html>

data/doc/site/index.html

@@ -1,102 +0,0 @@
-<html><head><link type="text/css" href="./screen.css" rel="stylesheet" />
-          <script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
-          </script>
-          <script type="text/javascript">
-          _uacct = "UA-3418876-1";
-          urchinTracker();
-          </script>
-        </head><body><div id="top"><div id="main_navigation"><ul><li><a href="syntactic_recognition.html">Documentation</a></li><li><a href="contribute.html">Contribute</a></li><li>Home</li></ul></div></div><div id="middle"><div id="content"><p class="intro_text">
-
-Treetop is a language for describing languages. Combining the elegance of Ruby with cutting-edge <em>parsing expression grammars</em>, it helps you analyze syntax with revolutionarily ease.   
-
-</p>
-
-<pre><code>sudo gem install treetop
-</code></pre>
-
-<h1>Intuitive Grammar Specifications</h1>
-
-<p>Parsing expression grammars (PEGs) are simple to write and easy to maintain. They are a simple but powerful generalization of regular expressions that are easier to work with than the LALR or LR-1 grammars of traditional parser generators. There's no need for a tokenization phase, and <em>lookahead assertions</em> can be used for a limited degree of context-sensitivity. Here's an extremely simple Treetop grammar that matches a subset of arithmetic, respecting operator precedence:</p>
-
-<pre><code>grammar Arithmetic
-  rule additive
-    multitive '+' additive / multitive
-  end
-
-  rule multitive
-    primary '*' multitive / primary
-  end
-
-  rule primary
-    '(' additive ')' / number
-  end
-
-  rule number
-    [1-9] [0-9]*
-  end
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<h1>Syntax-Oriented Programming</h1>
-
-<p>Rather than implementing semantic actions that construct parse trees, Treetop lets you define methods on trees that it constructs for you automatically. You can define these methods directly within the grammar...</p>
-
-<pre><code>grammar Arithmetic
-  rule additive
-    multitive '+' additive {
-      def value
-        multitive.value + additive.value
-      end
-    }
-    /
-    multitive
-  end
-
-  # other rules below ...
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>...or associate rules with classes of nodes you wish your parsers to instantiate upon matching a rule.</p>
-
-<pre><code>grammar Arithmetic
-  rule additive
-    multitive '+' additive &lt;AdditiveNode&gt;
-    /
-    multitive
-  end
-
-  # other rules below ...
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<h1>Reusable, Composable Language Descriptions</h1>
-
-<p>Because PEGs are closed under composition, Treetop grammars can be treated like Ruby modules. You can mix them into one another and override rules with access to the <code>super</code> keyword. You can break large grammars down into coherent units or make your language's syntax modular. This is especially useful if you want other programmers to be able to reuse your work.</p>
-
-<pre><code>grammar RubyWithEmbeddedSQL
-  include SQL
-
-  rule string
-    quote sql_expression quote / super
-  end
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<h1>Acknowledgements</h1>
-
-<p><a href="http://pivotallabs.com"><img id="pivotal_logo" src="./images/pivotal.gif"></a></p>
-
-<p>First, thank you to my employer Rob Mee of <a href="http://pivotallabs.com"/>Pivotal Labs</a> for funding a substantial portion of Treetop's development. He gets it.</p>
-
-<p>I'd also like to thank:</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li>Damon McCormick for several hours of pair programming.</li>
-<li>Nick Kallen for lots of well-considered feedback and a few afternoons of programming.</li>
-<li>Brian Takita for a night of pair programming.</li>
-<li>Eliot Miranda for urging me rewrite as a compiler right away rather than putting it off.</li>
-<li>Ryan Davis and Eric Hodel for hurting my code.</li>
-<li>Dav Yaginuma for kicking me into action on my idea.</li>
-<li>Bryan Ford for his seminal work on Packrat Parsers.</li>
-<li>The editors of Lambda the Ultimate, where I discovered parsing expression grammars.</li>
-</ul></div></div><div id="bottom"></div></body></html>

data/doc/site/pitfalls_and_advanced_techniques.html

@@ -1,68 +0,0 @@
-<html><head><link type="text/css" href="./screen.css" rel="stylesheet" />
-          <script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
-          </script>
-          <script type="text/javascript">
-          _uacct = "UA-3418876-1";
-          urchinTracker();
-          </script>
-        </head><body><div id="top"><div id="main_navigation"><ul><li>Documentation</li><li><a href="contribute.html">Contribute</a></li><li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li></ul></div></div><div id="middle"><div id="content"><div id="secondary_navigation"><ul><li><a href="syntactic_recognition.html">Syntax</a></li><li><a href="semantic_interpretation.html">Semantics</a></li><li><a href="using_in_ruby.html">Using In Ruby</a></li><li>Advanced Techniques</li></ul></div><div id="documentation_content"><h1>Pitfalls</h1>
-
-<h2>Left Recursion</h2>
-
-<p>An weakness shared by all recursive descent parsers is the inability to parse left-recursive rules. Consider the following rule:</p>
-
-<pre><code>rule left_recursive
-  left_recursive 'a' / 'a'
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>Logically it should match a list of 'a' characters. But it never consumes anything, because attempting to recognize <code>left_recursive</code> begins by attempting to recognize <code>left_recursive</code>, and so goes an infinite recursion. There's always a way to eliminate these types of structures from your grammar. There's a mechanistic transformation called <em>left factorization</em> that can eliminate it, but it isn't always pretty, especially in combination with automatically constructed syntax trees. So far, I have found more thoughtful ways around the problem. For instance, in the interpreter example I interpret inherently left-recursive function application right recursively in syntax, then correct the directionality in my semantic interpretation. You may have to be clever.</p>
-
-<h1>Advanced Techniques</h1>
-
-<p>Here are a few interesting problems I've encountered. I figure sharing them may give you insight into how these types of issues are addressed with the tools of parsing expressions.</p>
-
-<h2>Matching a String</h2>
-
-<pre><code>rule string
-  '"' (!'"' . / '\"')* '"'
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>This expression says: Match a quote, then zero or more of any character but a quote or an escaped quote followed by a quote. Lookahead assertions are essential for these types of problems.</p>
-
-<h2>Matching Nested Structures With Non-Unique Delimeters</h2>
-
-<p>Say I want to parse a diabolical wiki syntax in which the following interpretations apply.</p>
-
-<pre><code>** *hello* ** --&gt; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;hello&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
-* **hello** * --&gt; &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;hello&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;
-
-rule strong
-  '**' (em / !'*' . / '*')+ '**'
-end
-
-rule em
-  '**' (strong / !'*' . / '*')+ '**'    
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>Emphasized text is allowed within strong text by virtue of <code>em</code> being the first alternative. Since <code>em</code> will only successfully parse if a matching <code>*</code> is found, it is permitted, but other than that, no <code>*</code> characters are allowed unless they are escaped.</p>
-
-<h2>Matching a Keyword But Not Words Prefixed Therewith</h2>
-
-<p>Say I want to consider a given string a characters only when it occurs in isolation. Lets use the <code>end</code> keyword as an example. We don't want the prefix of <code>'enders_game'</code> to be considered a keyword. A naiive implementation might be the following.</p>
-
-<pre><code>rule end_keyword
-  'end' &amp;space
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>This says that <code>'end'</code> must be followed by a space, but this space is not consumed as part of the matching of <code>keyword</code>. This works in most cases, but is actually incorrect. What if <code>end</code> occurs at the end of the buffer? In that case, it occurs in isolation but will not match the above expression. What we really mean is that <code>'end'</code> cannot be followed by a <em>non-space</em> character.</p>
-
-<pre><code>rule end_keyword
-  'end' !(!' ' .)
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>In general, when the syntax gets tough, it helps to focus on what you really mean. A keyword is a character not followed by another character that isn't a space.</p></div></div></div><div id="bottom"></div></body></html>

data/doc/site/screen.css

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-margin: 0;
-padding: 0;
-background: #666666;
-font-family: "Lucida Grande", Geneva, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;
-color: #333333;
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-
-div {
-margin: 0;
-background-position: center;
-background-repeat: none;
-}
-
-h1 {
-  font-size: 125%;
-  margin-top: 1.5em;
-  margin-bottom: .5em;
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-
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-  margin-top: 3em;
-  margin-bottom: .5em;
-}
-
-h3 {
-  font-size: 105%;
-  margin-top: 1.5em;
-  margin-bottom: .5em;
-}
-
-a {
-  color: #ff8429;
-}
-
-
-div#top {
-  background-image: url( "images/top_background.png" );
-  height: 200px;
-  width: 100%;
-}
-
-div#middle {
-  padding-top: 10px;
-  background-image: url( "images/middle_background.png" );
-  background-repeat: repeat-y;
-}
-
-div#bottom {
-  background-image: url( "images/bottom_background.png" );
-  height: 13px;
-  margin-bottom: 30px;
-}
-
-div#main_navigation {
-  width: 300px;
-  margin: 0px auto 0 auto;
-  padding-top: 43px;
-  padding-right: 10px;
-  position: relative;
-  right: 500px;
-  text-align: right;
-  line-height: 130%;
-  font-size: 90%;
-}
-
-div#main_navigation ul {
-  list-style-type: none;
-  padding: 0;
-}
-
-div#main_navigation a,  div#main_navigation a:visited {
-  color: white;
-  text-decoration: none;
-}
-
-div#main_navigation a:hover {
-  text-decoration: underline;
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-  position: relative;
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-div#secondary_navigation li {
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data/doc/site/semantic_interpretation.html

@@ -1,214 +0,0 @@
-<html><head><link type="text/css" href="./screen.css" rel="stylesheet" />
-          <script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
-          </script>
-          <script type="text/javascript">
-          _uacct = "UA-3418876-1";
-          urchinTracker();
-          </script>
-        </head><body><div id="top"><div id="main_navigation"><ul><li>Documentation</li><li><a href="contribute.html">Contribute</a></li><li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li></ul></div></div><div id="middle"><div id="content"><div id="secondary_navigation"><ul><li><a href="syntactic_recognition.html">Syntax</a></li><li>Semantics</li><li><a href="using_in_ruby.html">Using In Ruby</a></li><li><a href="pitfalls_and_advanced_techniques.html">Advanced Techniques</a></li></ul></div><div id="documentation_content"><h1>Semantic Interpretation</h1>
-
-<p>Lets use the below grammar as an example. It describes parentheses wrapping a single character to an arbitrary depth.</p>
-
-<pre><code>grammar ParenLanguage
-  rule parenthesized_letter
-    '(' parenthesized_letter ')'
-    /
-    [a-z]
-  end
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>Matches:</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li><code>'a'</code></li>
-<li><code>'(a)'</code></li>
-<li><code>'((a))'</code></li>
-<li>etc.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p>Output from a parser for this grammar looks like this:</p>
-
-<p><img src="./images/paren_language_output.png" alt="Tree Returned By ParenLanguageParser"/></p>
-
-<p>This is a parse tree whose nodes are instances of <code>Treetop::Runtime::SyntaxNode</code>. What if we could define methods on these node objects? We would then have an object-oriented program whose structure corresponded to the structure of our language. Treetop provides two techniques for doing just this.</p>
-
-<h2>Associating Methods with Node-Instantiating Expressions</h2>
-
-<p>Sequences and all types of terminals are node-instantiating expressions. When they match, they create instances of <code>Treetop::Runtime::SyntaxNode</code>. Methods can be added to these nodes in the following ways:</p>
-
-<h3>Inline Method Definition</h3>
-
-<p>Methods can be added to the nodes instantiated by the successful match of an expression</p>
-
-<pre><code>grammar ParenLanguage
-  rule parenthesized_letter
-    '(' parenthesized_letter ')' {
-      def depth
-        parenthesized_letter.depth + 1
-      end
-    }
-    /
-    [a-z] {
-      def depth
-        0
-      end
-    }
-  end
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>Note that each alternative expression is followed by a block containing a method definition. A <code>depth</code> method is defined on both expressions. The recursive <code>depth</code> method defined in the block following the first expression determines the depth of the nested parentheses and adds one two it. The base case is implemented in the block following the second expression; a single character has a depth of 0.</p>
-
-<h3>Custom <code>SyntaxNode</code> Subclass Declarations</h3>
-
-<p>You can instruct the parser to instantiate a custom subclass of Treetop::Runtime::SyntaxNode for an expression by following it by the name of that class enclosed in angle brackets (<code>&lt;&gt;</code>). The above inline method definitions could have been moved out into a single class like so.</p>
-
-<pre><code># in .treetop file
-grammar ParenLanguage
-  rule parenthesized_letter
-    '(' parenthesized_letter ')' &lt;ParenNode&gt;
-    /
-    [a-z] &lt;ParenNode&gt;
-  end
-end
-
-# in separate .rb file
-class ParenNode &lt; Treetop::Runtime::SyntaxNode
-  def depth
-    if nonterminal?
-      parenthesized_letter.depth + 1
-    else
-      0
-    end
-  end
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<h2>Automatic Extension of Results</h2>
-
-<p>Nonterminal and ordered choice expressions do not instantiate new nodes, but rather pass through nodes that are instantiated by other expressions. They can extend nodes they propagate with anonymous or declared modules, using similar constructs used with expressions that instantiate their own syntax nodes.</p>
-
-<h3>Extending a Propagated Node with an Anonymous Module</h3>
-
-<pre><code>rule parenthesized_letter
-  ('(' parenthesized_letter ')' / [a-z]) {
-    def depth
-      if nonterminal?
-        parenthesized_letter.depth + 1
-      else
-        0
-      end
-    end
-  }
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>The parenthesized choice above can result in a node matching either of the two choices. Than node will be extended with methods defined in the subsequent block. Note that a choice must always be parenthesized to be associated with a following block.</p>
-
-<h3>Extending A Propagated Node with a Declared Module</h3>
-
-<pre><code># in .treetop file
-rule parenthesized_letter
-  ('(' parenthesized_letter ')' / [a-z]) &lt;ParenNode&gt;
-end
-
-# in separate .rb file
-module ParenNode
-  def depth
-    if nonterminal?
-      parenthesized_letter.depth + 1
-    else
-      0
-    end
-  end
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>Here the result is extended with the <code>ParenNode</code> module. Note the previous example for node-instantiating expressions, the constant in the declaration must be a module because the result is extended with it.</p>
-
-<h2>Automatically-Defined Element Accessor Methods</h2>
-
-<h3>Default Accessors</h3>
-
-<p>Nodes instantiated upon the matching of sequences have methods automatically defined for any nonterminals in the sequence.</p>
-
-<pre><code>rule abc
-  a b c {
-    def to_s
-      a.to_s + b.to_s + c.to_s
-    end
-  }
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>In the above code, the <code>to_s</code> method calls automatically-defined element accessors for the nodes returned by parsing nonterminals <code>a</code>, <code>b</code>, and <code>c</code>. </p>
-
-<h3>Labels</h3>
-
-<p>Subexpressions can be given an explicit label to have an element accessor method defined for them. This is useful in cases of ambiguity between two references to the same nonterminal or when you need to access an unnamed subexpression.</p>
-
-<pre><code>rule labels
-  first_letter:[a-z] rest_letters:(', ' letter:[a-z])* {
-    def letters
-      [first_letter] + rest_letters.map do |comma_and_letter|
-        comma_and_letter.letter
-      end
-    end
-  }
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>The above grammar uses label-derived accessors to determine the letters in a comma-delimited list of letters. The labeled expressions <em>could</em> have been extracted to their own rules, but if they aren't used elsewhere, labels still enable them to be referenced by a name within the expression's methods.</p>
-
-<h3>Overriding Element Accessors</h3>
-
-<p>The module containing automatically defined element accessor methods is an ancestor of the module in which you define your own methods, meaning you can override them with access to the <code>super</code> keyword. Here's an example of how this fact can improve the readability of the example above.</p>
-
-<pre><code>rule labels
-  first_letter:[a-z] rest_letters:(', ' letter:[a-z])* {
-    def letters
-      [first_letter] + rest_letters
-    end
-
-    def rest_letters
-      super.map { |comma_and_letter| comma_and_letter.letter }
-    end
-  }
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<h2>Methods Available on <code>Treetop::Runtime::SyntaxNode</code></h2>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <td>
-      <code>terminal?</code>
-    </td>
-    <td>
-      Was this node produced by the matching of a terminal symbol?
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>
-      <code>nonterminal?</code>
-    </td>
-    <td>
-      Was this node produced by the matching of a nonterminal symbol?
-    </td>
-  <tr>
-    <td>
-      <code>text_value</code>
-    </td>
-    <td>
-      The substring of the input represented by this node.
-    </td>
-  <tr>
-    <td>
-      <code>elements</code>
-    </td>
-    <td>
-      Available only on nonterminal nodes, returns the nodes parsed by the elements of the matched sequence.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-</table></div></div></div><div id="bottom"></div></body></html>

data/doc/site/syntactic_recognition.html

@@ -1,142 +0,0 @@
-<html><head><link type="text/css" href="./screen.css" rel="stylesheet" />
-          <script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
-          </script>
-          <script type="text/javascript">
-          _uacct = "UA-3418876-1";
-          urchinTracker();
-          </script>
-        </head><body><div id="top"><div id="main_navigation"><ul><li>Documentation</li><li><a href="contribute.html">Contribute</a></li><li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li></ul></div></div><div id="middle"><div id="content"><div id="secondary_navigation"><ul><li>Syntax</li><li><a href="semantic_interpretation.html">Semantics</a></li><li><a href="using_in_ruby.html">Using In Ruby</a></li><li><a href="pitfalls_and_advanced_techniques.html">Advanced Techniques</a></li></ul></div><div id="documentation_content"><h1>Syntactic Recognition</h1>
-
-<p>Treetop grammars are written in a custom language based on parsing expression grammars. Literature on the subject of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing_expression_grammar">parsing expression grammars</a> is useful in writing Treetop grammars.</p>
-
-<h1>Grammar Structure</h1>
-
-<p>Treetop grammars look like this:</p>
-
-<pre><code>grammar GrammarName
-  rule rule_name
-    ...
-  end
-
-  rule rule_name
-    ...
-  end
-
-  ...
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>The main keywords are:</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li><p><code>grammar</code> : This introduces a new grammar. It is followed by a constant name to which the grammar will be bound when it is loaded.</p></li>
-<li><p><code>rule</code> : This defines a parsing rule within the grammar. It is followed by a name by which this rule can be referenced within other rules. It is then followed by a parsing expression defining the rule.</p></li>
-</ul>
-
-<h1>Parsing Expressions</h1>
-
-<p>Each rule associates a name with a <em>parsing expression</em>. Parsing expressions are a generalization of vanilla regular expressions. Their key feature is the ability to reference other expressions in the grammar by name.</p>
-
-<h2>Terminal Symbols</h2>
-
-<h3>Strings</h3>
-
-<p>Strings are surrounded in double or single quotes and must be matched exactly.</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li><code>"foo"</code></li>
-<li><code>'foo'</code></li>
-</ul>
-
-<h3>Character Classes</h3>
-
-<p>Character classes are surrounded by brackets. Their semantics are identical to those used in Ruby's regular expressions.</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li><code>[a-zA-Z]</code></li>
-<li><code>[0-9]</code></li>
-</ul>
-
-<h3>The Anything Symbol</h3>
-
-<p>The anything symbol is represented by a dot (<code>.</code>) and matches any single character.</p>
-
-<h2>Nonterminal Symbols</h2>
-
-<p>Nonterminal symbols are unquoted references to other named rules. They are equivalent to an inline substitution of the named expression.</p>
-
-<pre><code>rule foo
-  "the dog " bar
-end
-
-rule bar
-  "jumped"
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>The above grammar is equivalent to:</p>
-
-<pre><code>rule foo
-  "the dog jumped"
-end
-</code></pre>
-
-<h2>Ordered Choice</h2>
-
-<p>Parsers attempt to match ordered choices in left-to-right order, and stop after the first successful match.</p>
-
-<pre><code>"foobar" / "foo" / "bar"
-</code></pre>
-
-<p>Note that if <code>"foo"</code> in the above expression came first, <code>"foobar"</code> would never be matched.</p>
-
-<h2>Sequences</h2>
-
-<p>Sequences are a space-separated list of parsing expressions. They have higher precedence than choices, so choices must be parenthesized to be used as the elements of a sequence. </p>
-
-<pre><code>"foo" "bar" ("baz" / "bop")
-</code></pre>
-
-<h2>Zero or More</h2>
-
-<p>Parsers will greedily match an expression zero or more times if it is followed by the star (<code>*</code>) symbol.</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li><code>'foo'*</code> matches the empty string, <code>"foo"</code>, <code>"foofoo"</code>, etc.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<h2>One or More</h2>
-
-<p>Parsers will greedily match an expression one or more times if it is followed by the star (<code>+</code>) symbol.</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li><code>'foo'+</code> does not match the empty string, but matches <code>"foo"</code>, <code>"foofoo"</code>, etc.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<h2>Optional Expressions</h2>
-
-<p>An expression can be declared optional by following it with a question mark (<code>?</code>).</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li><code>'foo'?</code> matches <code>"foo"</code> or the empty string.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<h2>Lookahead Assertions</h2>
-
-<p>Lookahead assertions can be used to give parsing expressions a limited degree of context-sensitivity. The parser will look ahead into the buffer and attempt to match an expression without consuming input.</p>
-
-<h3>Positive Lookahead Assertion</h3>
-
-<p>Preceding an expression with an ampersand <code>(&amp;)</code> indicates that it must match, but no input will be consumed in the process of determining whether this is true.</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li><code>"foo" &amp;"bar"</code> matches <code>"foobar"</code> but only consumes up to the end <code>"foo"</code>. It will not match <code>"foobaz"</code>.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<h3>Negative Lookahead Assertion</h3>
-
-<p>Preceding an expression with a bang <code>(!)</code> indicates that the expression must not match, but no input will be consumed in the process of determining whether this is true.</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li><code>"foo" !"bar"</code> matches <code>"foobaz"</code> but only consumes up to the end <code>"foo"</code>. It will not match <code>"foobar"</code>.</li>
-</ul></div></div></div><div id="bottom"></div></body></html>

data/doc/site/using_in_ruby.html

@@ -1,34 +0,0 @@
-<html><head><link type="text/css" href="./screen.css" rel="stylesheet" />
-          <script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
-          </script>
-          <script type="text/javascript">
-          _uacct = "UA-3418876-1";
-          urchinTracker();
-          </script>
-        </head><body><div id="top"><div id="main_navigation"><ul><li>Documentation</li><li><a href="contribute.html">Contribute</a></li><li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li></ul></div></div><div id="middle"><div id="content"><div id="secondary_navigation"><ul><li><a href="syntactic_recognition.html">Syntax</a></li><li><a href="semantic_interpretation.html">Semantics</a></li><li>Using In Ruby</li><li><a href="pitfalls_and_advanced_techniques.html">Advanced Techniques</a></li></ul></div><div id="documentation_content"><h1>Using Treetop Grammars in Ruby</h1>
-
-<h2>Using the Command Line Compiler</h2>
-
-<p>You can <code>.treetop</code> files into Ruby source code with the <code>tt</code> command line script. <code>tt</code> takes an list of files with a <code>.treetop</code> extension and compiles them into <code>.rb</code> files of the same name. You can then <code>require</code> these files like any other Ruby script. Alternately, you can supply just one <code>.treetop</code> file and a <code>-o</code> flag to name specify the name of the output file. Improvements to this compilation script are welcome.</p>
-
-<pre><code>tt foo.treetop bar.treetop
-tt foo.treetop -o foogrammar.rb
-</code></pre>
-
-<h2>Loading A Grammar Directly</h2>
-
-<p>The Polyglot gem makes it possible to load <code>.treetop</code> or <code>.tt</code> files directly with <code>require</code>. This will invoke <code>Treetop.load</code>, which automatically compiles the grammar to Ruby and then evaluates the Ruby source. If you are getting errors in methods you define on the syntax tree, try using the command line compiler for better stack trace feedback. A better solution to this issue is in the works.</p>
-
-<h2>Instantiating and Using Parsers</h2>
-
-<p>If a grammar by the name of <code>Foo</code> is defined, the compiled Ruby source will define a <code>FooParser</code> class. To parse input, create an instance and call its <code>parse</code> method with a string. The parser will return the syntax tree of the match or <code>nil</code> if there is a failure.</p>
-
-<pre><code>Treetop.load "arithmetic"
-
-parser = ArithmeticParser.new
-if parser.parse('1+1')
-  puts 'success'
-else
-  puts 'failure'
-end
-</code></pre></div></div></div><div id="bottom"></div></body></html>