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                        PCCTS Reference Manual


                             Version 1.00


               T. J. Parr, H. G. Dietz, and W. E. Cohen

                   School of Electrical Engineering
                          Purdue University
                      West Lafayette, IN  47907
                             August 1991
                         [e-mail]






             This document describes the structure and use of the
     Purdue Compiler-Construction Tool Set (PCCTS), a set of pub-
     lic domain software tools designed to facilitate the  imple-
     mentation of compilers and other translation systems.

             Distribution of PCCTS is managed by an email  server
     that   reads  the  Subject:  line  of  each  email  sent  to
     [e-mail].       A     missing     or     undeci-
     pherable  Subject:  line will cause the system to reply with
     email explaining how to use the server.  Full C source  code
     for  PCCTS,  various examples, and on-line documentation are
     available.

             PCCTS was developed within the School of  Electrical
     Engineering  at  Purdue University, supported in part by NSF
     award number 8624385A3-CDR.  As  a  public  domain  software
     release,  Purdue University and the authors provide the sys-
     tem strictly on an "as-is" basis, without warranty  or  lia-
     bility.  Despite this, bug reports and fixes are welcome.




















1.  Introduction

     This  document  describes  structure  and  use  of   the   Purdue
Compiler-Construction  Tool Set (PCCTS).  In many ways, PCCTS is simi-
lar to a highly integrated version of YACC [Joh78]  and  LEX  [Les75];
where  ANTLR  (ANother  Tool  for Language Recognition) corresponds to
YACC and DLG (DFA-based Lexical  analyzer  Generator)  functions  like
LEX.  However, PCCTS has many additional features which make it easier
to use for a wide range of translation problems.

     PCCTS grammars contain specifications for lexical  and  syntactic
analysis,  intermediate-form construction and error reporting.  Future
releases will include an integrated code-generator generator  to  sup-
port  code-generation and other intermediate-form translations.  Rules
may employ Extended BNF  (EBNF)  grammar  constructs  and  may  define
parameters, return values and local variables.  Languages described in
PCCTS are recognized via Strong LL(k)  parsers  constructed  in  pure,
human-readable, C code.

     The Version 1.00 Release  PCCTS  package  is  considered  public-
domain and includes the following items:



o    C source code for antlr - parser generator.

o    C source code for dlg - DFA-based lexical analyzer generator.

o    C source for a symbol table manager with arbitrary scoping  capa-
     bilities.

o    Grammars for ISO PASCAL and ANSI C with symbol table management.

o    C source for rexpr(char *expr, char *s) which answers  whether  s
     is in the language (regular expression) described by expr.

o    On-line documents - PCCTS Version 1.00 Reference Manual


     PCCTS was developed within the School of  Electrical  Engineering
at Purdue University to aid in constructing various prototype and spe-
cialized compilers.  After using  the  system  for  over  a  year,  we
decided  that  it  was  mature enough to warrant release to a few test
sites.  Hence, in Spring 1990, an experimental version of the  system,
known  as PCCTS B, was made available via anonymous ftp.  Although the
system was only announced via two  short  postings  in  network  news-
groups,  by  January 1991, there were over 450 known user sites world-
wide - and we were hopelessly behind in  responding  to  requests  for
hardcopy manuals.

     Now, only a year older but much wiser, we are finally ready for a
full  release  of PCCTS - Version 1.00.  Experience has proven that we
are not able to deal with high-quantity  hardcopy  requests;  instead,
the  basic  documentation  (this document) is being printed by SIGPLAN



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Notices and all documentation is available on-line.

     The rest of this section describes the overall characteristics of
PCCTS  including  its programming interface, translation to C code and
input file format.  Also, an example is presented  to  illustrate  the
development of parsers using PCCTS.

1.1.  PCCTS programming interface

     PCCTS accepts language descriptions in the form of a set of gram-
matical  rules and token/lexeme definitions.  Significant emphasis was
placed on making the PCCTS programming interface simple and  flexible.
Much  of  the notation was derived from previous language tools and/or
programming languages in order to bring a sense of familiarity and  to
attenuate  the  learning  curve.  For example, attribute notation ($i)
and grammar syntax were derived mainly from  YACC,  though  they  have
been  augmented  for  use  in  the EBNF environment.  Rules may define
return types, parameter lists and local variables just as  in  a  pro-
gramming  language.   A mechanism for describing abstract-syntax-trees
is also provided.

     PCCTS Grammars tend to be smaller and more readable than grammars
written  for  other parser-generators because of the EBNF notation and
because precedence rules are defined  inherently  within  the  grammar
rather  than delineated via pseudo-instructions (e.g. %left, %right in
YACC).  In addition, PCCTS translators (parser plus actions) are  gen-
erally easier to develop because of the extensive programming support.

     For example, init-actions allow the user to define  local  stack-
based variables or execute a piece of C initialization code.  Often, a
distinct copy of a variable is required for each invocation of a rule.
This  requires  the  overhead  of  a  software  stack when using other
language tools.  PCCTS constructs  a  function  for  each  rule  which
allows  each  rule  invocation to automatically create its own copy of
the user variables on the hardware stack.

     PCCTS parsers are constructed in pure,  human-readable,  C  code.
As  a  result, standard debugging tools can be used to trace and debug
PCCTS parsers.  Breakpoints can be set so that parser execution  stops
before or after certain grammar fragments of interest have been recog-
nized.  PCCTS parsers consist of if, and while statements which can be
easily traced by a human observer.

     PCCTS supports intermediate-form (such as expression-trees)  con-
struction  via  a  flexible abstract-syntax-tree (AST) mechanism which
allows trees to be built explicitly or automatically.  The user expli-
citly  creates  trees  via a LISP-like tree constructor or directs the
automatic tree construction facility via  simple  grammar  directives.
AST tree nodes are user-defined and are generally a function of attri-
butes    or    terminals.     A    default     transformation     from
attributes/terminals  ($-variables)  to  AST  nodes  can be specified.
Alternatively, each tree node can be defined  explicitly  via  an  AST
node constructor.




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1.2.  PCCTS information flow

     PCCTS currently consists of  ANTLR  (ANother  Tool  for  Language
Recognition) and DLG (DFA-based lexical analyzer generator) which con-
struct parsers and lexical analyzers respectively.

     ANTLR accepts as input a complete language description  including
rules for both lexical and syntactic analysis and produces a C program
that recognizes sentences in that language.  A C file  is  constructed
for  each  grammar  description  file.  Also, three additional files -
err.c, tokens.h and parser.dlg (all of which can be renamed) are  gen-
erated  as  support  files. err.c contains error information and token
class definitions.  tokens.h is a list of #define's  representing  all
of  the  token  names defined or referenced in the grammar description
files as well as function prototypes for rules that have return types.
parser.dlg  is  a  specification  of  the  lexical  analyzer generator
derived from the user's language description and is translated to C by
DLG.

     DLG creates an automaton  that  breaks  up  the  input  character
stream  into  tokens used by the ANTLR-generated parser and it creates
mode.h which is a list of  #define's  corresponding  to  the  separate
automatons defined by your grammar.

     The following is a graphical representation  of  the  information
flow during translation from parser description to executable parser.


                           [Figure omitted]





_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________|
|f1 ... fn     ||Input ANTLR grammar description files                 |
|______________||______________________________________________________|
|______________||______________________________________________________|
|tokens.h      ||List of token names found in f1 ... fn                |
|______________||______________________________________________________|
|______________||______________________________________________________|
|parser.dlg    ||Scanner description prepared for DLG                  |
|______________||______________________________________________________|
|______________||______________________________________________________|
|mode.h        ||Definitions for lexical modes (#lexclass's)           |
|______________||______________________________________________________|
|______________||______________________________________________________|



1.3.  PCCTS file(s) format

     PCCTS descriptions adhere to a fairly flexible format and can  be



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spread out over many files.  The actual grammar for PCCTS input can be
defined in itself as:




grammar         :       { "#header" Action }
                                ( Action | tokenDef | eclassDef )*
                                ( rule | tokenDef | eclassDef )+
                                ( Action | tokenDef | eclassDef )*
                                Eof
                        ;



where Action is a user action (C code), tokenDef is a  #token  defini-
tion  and eclassDef is an #errclass definition.  Lexical actions found
in a language description are passed on to the parser.dlg file.  The (
)*  and  (  )+ EBNF operators indicate 0 or more and 1 or more respec-
tively. { } implies that the items within are optional.  Rule  grammar
indicates  that  a  PCCTS  file has a #header action first (if at all)
followed by actions, token definitions  and  error  class  definitions
with  the  except that actions may not appear between rules.  Also, at
least one rule must be defined.  There is no start  symbol  specifica-
tion since any rule can be invoked first.

     The minimum required user C code is a main program that  initial-
izes the PCCTS-generated parser and calls the starting rule.  The lex-
ical analyzer is  derived  automatically  (from  the  user's  language
description)  by  ANTLR  and a user routine is not necessary to supply
tokens to the parser.  The main program does not need to be located in
a PCCTS grammar file.

     ANTLR descriptions may be broken up into  many  different  files,
but  the  sequence mentioned above in grammar must be maintained.  For
example, if file f1.g contained




#header <<#include "int.h">>

<< main() { ANTLR(start(), stdin); } >>



and file f2.g contained




start   :   "begin" VAR "=" NUM ";" "end" "." "@" ;





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and file f3.g contained




#token VAR "[a-z]+"
#token NUM "[0-9]+"



the correct ANTLR invocation would be




antlr f1.g f2.g f3.g



Note that the order of files f2.g and f3.g could be switched because a
rule  is  either a #token or an actual rule definition.  In this case,
to comply with ANTLR's grammar, the only restriction is that file f1.g
must be mentioned first on the command line.

     Other files may be included into the parser  files  generated  by
ANTLR via actions containing a #include directive.  For example,




<<#include "support_code.h">>



If a file must be included in all parser files generated by ANTLR, the
#include  directive  must  be  placed in the #header action.  In other
words,




#header <<#include "necessary_type_defs_for_all_files.h">>



Note that #include's can be used to define any ANTLR  object  (Attrib,
AST, etc...) by placing it in the #header action.

1.4.  Makefile template

     The template presented in this section can be used  to  construct
makefiles  for single-file grammars.  The order of execution will fol-
low that illustrated in section 1.2.




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#
# Makefile for a single-file grammar
#
ANTLR_H= path to antlr.h, dlgdef.h, dlgauto.h, standard attribute defs
CFLAGS= -I$(ANTLR_H) -DLL_K = $(K)
AFLAGS=
GRM=user_grammar_file_name
SRC=scan.c $(GRM).c err.c
OBJ=scan.o $(GRM).o err.o
K=number_of_tokens_of_lookahead

# build an executable with same name as grammar file minus .g
proj: $(OBJ) $(SRC)
        cc -o $(GRM) $(OBJ)

# how to build parser files from grammar files
$(GRM).c parser.dlg : $(GRM).g
        antlr $(AFLAGS) $(GRM).g

# how to build scanner from lex description built by ANTLR
scan.c : parser.dlg
        dlg -C2 parser.dlg scan.c



1.5.  PCCTS component command-line options

     The PCCTS system is composed of ANTLR and DLG both of which  have
command-line options.  Since each component is executed independently,
each may be invoked with different options  which  are  summarized  in
this section.

     ANTLR accepts the following command-line options

-cr  Generate cross reference of all rules.  The default is FALSE.

-e1  Only the first 3 tokens of any ambiguity set are  displayed  upon
     warning/error.  i.e. { A B C ...}.

-e2  Every token in an ambiguity set is displayed upon warning/error.

-e3  Error levels 1 and 2 (-e1, -e2) are sometimes misleading for  the
     sake  of  brevity.   For instance, when a block is ambiguous upon
     the sequences




     A B
     C D



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     only { A C }, { B D } is displayed when in fact A D and  C B  are
     not  ambiguous.   The -e3 option makes ANTLR generate permutation
     trees in LISP-like notation




     (root child1 child2 ... childn)



     The following grammar illustrates the difference




     a   :   (A B|C D|A D|C B)
         |   (A D|C B)
         ;



     ANTLR with error level 1 or 2 reports




     Antlr parser generator   Version 1.00   1989, 1990, 1991
     "t.g", line 1: warning: alts 1 and 2 rule ambiguous upon { A C }, { B D }



     ANTLR with error level 3 reports




     Antlr parser generator   Version 1.00   1989, 1990, 1991
     "t.g", line 4: warning: alts 1 and 2 rule ambiguous upon ( C B ) ( A D )



     which indicates that rule  a  is  only  ambiguous  upon  the  two
     sequences C B and A D.


-fe fname
     Rename the file where error information, token  sets,  and  zzto-
     kens[] are placed.  Default is err.c.

-fl fname
     Rename the file  where  ANTLR  places  the  lexical  description.
     Default is parser.dlg.




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-ft fname
     Rename the file where ANTLR places the #define's for labeled con-
     stants and the function prototypes.  Default is tokens.h.

-ga  Generate ANSI prototypes for functions  constructed  from  rules.
     Default is not to generate ANSI-style prototypes.

-gt  Generate code for Abstract-Syntax-Trees.  Default is not to  gen-
     erate trees.

-gc  Do  not  generate  output  parser  code  or  lexical  description
     (implies  -gx).   This  option can be used to check a grammar for
     ambiguities.  Default is to generate parsers.

-ge  Generate an error class for each non-terminal of the form




     #errclass Rule { rule }



     Default is not to generate the classes.


-gs  When a token in the  current  look-ahead  needs  to  be  compared
     against  two or more tokens, code for set membership is generated
     rather than a set  of  integer  comparisons.   This  renders  the
     parsers  more  efficient,  but  much more difficult to read for a
     human.  When debugging  an  ANTLR  parser  with  a  source  level
     debugger,  this command-line option should be used to create more
     readable parsers.  The default is to generate sets for any  token
     expression list with two or more members.

-gd  Generate debugging code; trace rule  invocation.   This  command-
     line  option  forces  ANTLR to generate code that calls zzTRACE()
     with the rule name in which it appears as an argument.  zzTRACE()
     can  be  a  macro  or a function.  The default is not to generate
     debugging code.

-gl  Generate line information in PCCTS-generated parser that  associ-
     ates  a  line  in  the  user's grammar with a line in the C code.
     This is useful when the C compiler reports an  error  in  a  user
     action.   It will report an error in the grammar file rather than
     an error in the C file.  This dumps line information like  the  C
     preprocessor.

-gx  Do not generate a lexical description (dlg-related  files).  This
     is  useful if you are positive nothing has changed in the lexical
     portion of your language description.  For example, if you simply
     change  an action in one of your rules, nothing has changed lexi-
     cally and you need not run DLG to recreate the lexical  analyzer.
     The default is to generate a description.



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-k n
     Set k, the number of look-ahead tokens, to n.  Default is 1.

-p   Print out the grammar to stdout without actions.  This option  is
     useful   for   documentation   purposes   or   to   simply   make
     viewing/understanding your grammar easier.  The default is not to
     generate a grammar printout.

-pa  This option is identical to the -p option accept that the grammar
     is  annotated with the results of grammar analysis.  For example,
     the set of all tokens that can be matched at k  tokens  into  the
     future  are  displayed  after  each point in your grammar where a
     decision has to be made.  ANTLR  prints  out  only  the  sets  of
     tokens  that would be needed to construct a parser.  Rule a below
     illustrates the annotations.




     #header <<;>>
     a   :   (A B | A D)
         |   Q
         ;



     Executing ANTLR with




     antlr -k 2 -pa t.g



     yields (cleaned up slightly)




     Antlr parser generator   Version 1.00   1989, 1990, 1991

     a   :   ( A B       /* [1] { A }, { B } */
             | A D       /* [2] { A }, { D } */
             )           /* [1] { A } */
             | Q         /* [2] { Q } */
         ;



     The first alternative of rule a has a subrule with  two  alterna-
     tives which requires a parsing decision.  Since both alternatives
     start with an A, another token of look-ahead must be examined  to
     determine  which alternative to choose.  In this case, the second



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     token in each alternative allows us to  choose.   Therefore,  two
     sets  of  tokens  (singleton  sets here) are printed out for each
     alternative in the subrule.  The alternatives of rule  a  can  be
     matched  with  the  knowledge of only the first token and so only
     one set is printed.  The default is not  to  generate  a  grammar
     printout with annotations.

     DLG has the following command-line options.

-Cn
     Specify  level  of  character  class  compression.   0  means  no
     compression,  1  removes unused characters from DFA states, and 2
     specifies that DLG is  to  combine  characters  into  equivalence
     classes.   It  is suggested that -C2 be used since it will result
     in much smaller output file and does not require much  additional
     processing time.

-ga  Produce ANSI C compatible code.

-m filename
     Uses filename rather than mode.h for the lexical mode  definition
     file.

-i   Attempts to build a lexical  scanner  for  interactive  programs.
     The  non-interactive  scanner always looks one character past the
     end of a token.  This look-ahead is avoided whenever possible  in
     the interactive version so that the pattern is recognized without
     any additional characters being read.  Look-ahead is always  used
     when necessary to correctly match input tokens.


1.6.  Introductory example

     As a simple concrete example of the PCCTS  system,  consider  the
following translator which accepts a date in the typical American for-
mat of mm/dd/yy and prints to stdout the same date, but in  the  Euro-
pean format of dd/mm/yy.




















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#header <<#include "int.h">>

<<
main()
{
    ANTLR(date(), stdin);
}
>>

#token "[\t\ \n]"     << zzskip(); >>          /* Ignore White */
#token Digits2 "[0-9][0-9]"                    /* Define mm, dd or yy */

date    :   Digits2 "/" Digits2 "/" Digits2 "@"
            <<printf("%02d/%02d/%02d\n", $3, $1, $5);>>
                ;



This example is complete in the sense that PCCTS can  generate  all  C
files necessary to lexically and syntactically analyze a date and con-
vert it to the European format.  An executable can be obtained by per-
forming the following sequence of commands (assuming the above grammar
is in file date.g and antlr.h, the standard ANTLR header,  is  in  the
current directory).




antlr date.g
dlg parser.dlg scan.c
cc date.c scan.c err.c



Executing the file a.out (on UNIX [Trademark AT&T] systems) will allow
the  user  to type in a date and have the European version printed out
(after end of file is typed).

     Rule date is defined to be a sequence of two digits followed by a
/ followed by a sequence of 2 digits, and so on, terminated by the end
of the input file (represented by "@").  Note that  rule  names  begin
with a lower-case letter.  The action




            <<printf("%02d/%02d/%02d\n", $3, $1, $5);>>






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contains C code that is executed after all elements in rule date  have
been  recognized.   C  code  for  the action is delimited by << and >>
(European quotes).  Because the >> delimiter otherwise would  be  con-
fused  with  C's  right-shift operator within the C code of an action,
right-shift is written as \>\>.  Similarly, the  $  and  #  characters
normally  have  special  meanings within the C code of a PCCTS action;
hence, the literal character $ in the C code would be  written  as  \$
and # would be written as \#.

     Although the placement of an action within a  grammar  determines
when  that  action  will  be applied, it must also be possible for the
action to be a function of the text which has  been  recognized.   For
example,  PCCTS  automatically  makes $1 in rule date have a value, or
attribute, which is a function  of  the  text  matched  by  the  first
occurrence  of Digits2.  In general, the attribute associated with the
ith item in a rule is called $i.  Both the type of the attributes  and
the mapping from text matched into its attribute value is specified by
the user.  The directive




#header <<#include "int.h">>



includes code that makes the values of "$ variables" be of the C  type
int  with values defined by applying the C function atoi() to the text
matched.

     Each item in the rules refers either to the  text  matched  by  a
simple  pattern  (a  regular expression) or to the collection of items
matched by a rule (represented by the rule's name).   Simple  patterns
can  be  stated  directly, such as "/" in the example, or can be given
names using the #token directive.  The token definitions




#token "[\t\ \n]"     << zzskip(); >>          /* Ignore White */
#token Digits2 "[0-9][0-9]"                    /* Define mm, dd or yy */



cause tab (\t), space (\ ), and newline (\n)  characters  between  the
other  tokens  to  be  ignored, and allow use of the name Digits2 as a
shorthand for "[0-9][0-9]".

     Since the above is meant to be a stand-alone complete example and
PCCTS  does  not  generate  a C main function, the user must provide a
main.  The main also specifies which rule is to be used  to  recognize
the input and where that input will come from.  The code





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    ANTLR(date(), stdin);



specifies that the date rule will be used  to  recognize  input  taken
from stdin (the standard input stream).

     Notice that, although there is no specification of how  incorrect
input should be handled by the generated program, PCCTS will automati-
cally generate appropriate error messages and attempt to recover  from
the errors.

     The above example should give the reader a "feel" for  how  PCCTS
can  be  used, however, the system supports much more than the example
uses.  This document is organized into  six  major  sections:  lexical
analysis,  syntactic  analysis,  attribute  handling, error detection,
miscellaneous items and PCCTS history.

2.  Lexical analysis and token definition

     The task of language recognition is conveniently broken down into
two phases - lexical and syntactic analysis.  Each phase is considered
a separate operation  and,  therefore,  most  language  tools  require
separate  specifications.   For  example,  Coco-2 [DoP90] requires the
user to create separate, but consistent, specifications  of  character
sets,  keywords  and  tokens  (and  even non-terminals).  In contrast,
PCCTS derives all this information from a  single  description.   This
both ensures that the information is consistent and makes it easier to
view a PCCTS language specification as a whole.

     This section of the manual describes general lexical issues asso-
ciated  with  PCCTS'  integrated  description including lexical action
definitions, regular expression specification, and resolution of ambi-
guities.   Also,  more specialized issues such as multiple automatons,
interactive scanners, token positional information and input character
supply are presented.

2.1.  Token Labeling and token actions

     Tokens are defined either explicitly with #token or implicitly by
using  them as rule elements.  Implicitly defined tokens can be either
regular expressions (non-labeled tokens)  or  token  names  (labeled).
Token  names  begin  with  an  upper-case  letter  (rules begin with a
lower-case letter).  More than one  occurrence  of  the  same  regular
expression  in a grammar description produces a single regular expres-
sion in parser.dlg and is assigned one token number.  Quoted and  non-
quoted  tokens  that refer to the same lexical object (expression) may
be used interchangeably.  Token names that  are  referenced,  but  not
attached  to  a  regular  expression are assigned a number and given a
#define definition in tokens.h.  It is  not  necessary  to  label  any



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tokens  in  PCCTS.   However,  all  tokens that you wish to explicitly
refer to in an action, must be declared  with  a  #token  instruction.
From  PCCTS's  point of view, it merely needs to know that a word is a
token (as opposed to a non-terminal).  Its value is irrelevant at  the
symbolic level of PCCTS's meta-language.

     The user may introduce tokens, lexical/token actions,  and  token
labels via the #token instruction.  Specifically,



o    Simply declare a token for use in a user action:



#token VAR



o    Associate a token with a regular expression and,  optionally,  an
     action:



#token VAR "[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*"
#token Eof "@" << printf("Eof Found\n"); >>



o    Specify what must occur upon a regular expression:



#token "[0-9]+"  << printf("Found int %s\n", zzlextext); >>



     Token  actions  may  employ  two  functions,   zzreplchar()   and
zzreplstr(), to replace the text for the regular expression matched on
the input stream.  For example, if \n is found in a string for  C,  it
needs  to  be converted to the actual newline character.  Strings in C
can be handled in the following manner.















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/* START lexclass is in effect */
#token "\""                      <<zzmode(STRINGS); zzmore();>>

#lexclass STRINGS   /* define a new automaton */
#token STRING "\""  <<zzmode(START);>>
#token "\\\""       <<zzmore();>>
#token "\\n"        <<zzreplchar('\n'); zzmore();>>
#token "\\r"        <<zzreplchar('\r'); zzmore();>>
#token "\\t"        <<zzreplchar('\t'); zzmore();>>
#token "\\[1-9][0-9]*"
                    <<zzreplchar((char)strtol(zzbegexpr,NULL,10)); zzmore();>>
#token "\\0[0-7]*"  <<zzreplchar((char)strtol(zzbegexpr,NULL,8)); zzmore();>>
#token "\\0x[0-9a-fA-F]+"
                                        <<zzreplchar((char)strtol(zzbegexpr,NULL,16)); zzmore();>>
#token "\\~[\n\r]"  <<zzmore();>>
#token "[\n\r]"     <<zzline++; zzmore(); /* print warning about \n in str */>>
#token "~[\"\n\r\\]+" <<zzmore();>>

#lexclass START



Note the use of zzbegexpr which points to the beginning  of  the  text
matched for the currently recognized regular expression.  zzendexpr is
also available and points to the end  of  the  expression.   The  text
always  has  a  '\0'  on the end and zzendexpr points to the character
just before.

     There is a big difference between a token  action  and  a  normal
action  found  outside  of  the  #token  instructions.   An action not
included as part of one of the lexical commands is considered  a  syn-
tactic  action and is placed in the C parser file associated with that
grammar file.

     If a grammar action follows a #token definition with  no  associ-
ated  lexical  action,  the  #token  instruction  will assume that the
action is really meant as a lexical action.  This is sort of analogous
to the dangling-else-clause dilemma.  Example:




#token VAR "[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*"

<<
    /*
     * This will be associated with the #token even though it is
     * probably a grammar action not a lexical action
     */
>>



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PCCTS 1.00


     This ambiguity can be solved by appending a null  action  to  the
#token:



#token VAR "[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*" << ; >>




2.2.  Lexical actions via #lexaction

     Often, it is convenient to have a section of user C  code  placed
in  the  lexical  analyzer  constructed  automatically by DLG (PCCTS's
DFA-based lexical analyzer generator).  Normally, actions not  associ-
ated  with  a #token pseudo-op or embedded within a rule are placed in
the parser generated by ANTLR.  However, preceding an action appearing
outside  of any rule, with the #lexaction pseudo-op directs the C code
to the lexical analyzer.  For example,




<< /* a normal action outside of the rules */ >>

#lexaction
    << /* this action is inserted into the lexical
        * analyzer created by DLG
        */
    >>



All #lexaction actions are collected and placed as a group into the  C
file  where the lexer resides.  Typically, this code consists of func-
tions or variable declarations needed by #token actions.

2.3.  Multiple lexical classes

     ANTLR parsers  employ  DFA's  (Deterministic  Finite  Automatons)
created  by  DLG  to match tokens found on the character input stream.
More than one automaton (lexical class) may be defined in PCCTS.  Mul-
tiple  scanners  are useful in two ways.  First, more than one grammar
can be described within the same PCCTS input file(s).  Second,  multi-
ple automatons can be used to recognize tokens that seriously conflict
with other regular expressions within the same lexical analyzer  (e.g.
comments, quoted-strings, etc...).

     Actions attached to regular expressions (which are executed  when
that  expression has been matched on the input stream) may switch from
one lexical analyzer to another.  Each  analyzer  (lex  class)  has  a
label  which  is  used  to enter that automaton.  A predefined lexical
class called START is in  effect  from  the  beginning  of  the  PCCTS
description  until the user issues a #lexclass directive or the end of



                                                               Page 16

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the description is found.

     When more than one lexical class is defined, it  is  possible  to
have  the  same regular expression and the same token label defined in
multiple automatons.  Regular expressions found in more than one auto-
maton  are  given different token numbers, but token labels are unique
across lexical class boundaries.  For instance,




#lexclass A
#token LABEL "expr1"

#lexclass B
#token LABEL "expr2"



In this case, LABEL is the same token number (#define in C)  for  both
"expr1"  and  "expr2".   A  reference  to  LABEL  within a rule can be
matched by two different regular expressions depending on which  auto-
maton is currently active.

     Hence, the #lexclass directive marks the start of a  new  set  of
lexical  definitions.   Rules  found  after  a  #lexclass can only use
tokens defined within that class - i.e. all tokens defined  until  the
next  #lexclass  or  the end of the PCCTS description, whichever comes
first.  Any regular expressions used  explicity  in  these  rules  are
placed  into  the current lexical class.  Since the default automaton,
START, is active upon parser startup, the start rule must  be  defined
within  the boundaries of the START automaton.  Typically, a multiple-
automaton PCCTS grammar will begin with




#lexclass START



immediately before the rule definitions to insure that the  rules  use
the token definitions in the "main" automaton.

     Tokens are given sequential  token  numbers  across  all  lexical
classes  so  that  no  conflicts  arise.  This also allows the user to
reference zztokens[token_num] (which  is  a  string  representing  the
label  or  regular  expression  defined  in the grammar) regardless of
which class token_num is defined in.

2.3.1.  Multiple grammars, multiple lexical analyzers

     Different  grammars  will  generally  require  separate   lexical
analyzers  to  break  up  the input stream into tokens.  What may be a



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keyword in one language, may be a simple  variable  in  another.   The
#lexclass PCCTS meta-op is used to group tokens into different lexical
analyzers.  For example, to separate two  grammars  into  two  lexical
classes,




#lexclass GRAMMAR1

rules for grammar1

#lexclass GRAMMAR2

rules for grammar2



All tokens found beyond the #lexclass meta-op will  be  considered  of
that class.

2.3.2.  Single grammar, multiple lexical analyzers

     Again the #lexclass meta-op is used to indicate the beginning  of
a  new lexical analyzer.  For instance to define C-style comments, the
following will suffice:




/* lexclass START is in effect by default */
/* switch to COMMENT automaton */
#token "/\*"         <<zzmode(COMMENT); zzskip();>>
 ...
#lexclass COMMENT
#token "\*/"         <<zzmode(START); zzskip();>>  /* switch back */
#token "~[\*]*"      <<zzskip();>>  /* ignore all stuff inside */
#token "\*~[/]"       <<zzskip();>>
 ...



2.4.  Handling end of input

     There is only one  automatically  defined  regular  expression  -
end-of-file  which  is  represented  by  the regular expression @.  An
implicit




#token "@"





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is executed at the start of each lexical class (#lexclass).   A  label
may be attached via the following in the user's grammar:




#token Eof "@"



A user could then refer to end-of-file as the #define constant Eof.

2.5.  Token order and lexical ambiguities

     The order in which regular expressions are found in  the  grammar
description  file(s) is significant.  When the input stream contains a
sequence of characters that match more than  one  regular  expression,
(e.g. one regular expression is a subset of another) DLG is confronted
with a dilemma.  DLG does not know which regular expression to  match,
hence,  it does not know which action should be performed.  To resolve
the ambiguity, DLG  assumes  that  the  regular  expression  which  is
defined  earliest  in  the DLG input should take precedence over later
definitions.  Therefore, tokens that are special cases of other  regu-
lar  expressions  should  be  defined  before the more general regular
expressions.

     ANTLR automatically constructs the input to DLG by copying  regu-
lar  expressions  into  the  file  parser.dlg.   These definitions are
copied in the order in which they are encountered among the rules  and
#token  definitions.   For  example,  a keyword is a special case of a
variable and thus needs to occur before the variable definition.




#token KBegin "begin"
        .
        .
        .
#token VAR "[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*"




2.6.  Quoted tokens

     The regular expressions in a PCCTS grammar appear  between  quote
marks and are literally copied into the input for DLG.  Therefore, the
regular expressions must use the notation accepted by DLG  -  a  rela-
tively standard notation using a few meta-symbols.

"a|b"Matches either the pattern a or the pattern b.

"(a)"Matches the pattern a.  Pattern a is kept as an indivisible unit.



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"{a}"Matches a or nothing, i.e., the same as "(a|)".

"[a]"Matches any single character in character list a.  e.g.   "[abc]"
     matches either an a, b or c and is equivalent to "(a|b|c)".

"[a-b]"
     Matches any of  the  single  characters  whose  ASCII  codes  are
     between a and b inclusively, i.e., the same as "(a|...  |b)".

"~[a]"
     Matches any single character except for those in  character  list
     a.

"~[]"
     Matches any single character; literally "not nothing."

"a*" Matches zero or more occurrences of pattern a.

"a+" Matches one or more occurrences of pattern a, i.e., the  same  as
     "aa*".

"\a" Matches the single character a - even if a by itself would have a
     different  meaning, e.g., "\+" would match the + character.  This
     is consistent with the use of \ in the C language.

In addition, the symbols %%, <<, and >> are used  to  specify  control
for  DLG;  hence, these patterns must be escaped if they are to appear
as literals within a regular expression.  For  example,  <<  would  be
\<\<.  The following characters are also special.

@    Matches end-of-file.

\t   Tab character

\n   Newline character

\r   Carriage return character

\b   Backspace character

\0nnnMatches character that has octal value nnn

\0xnnMatches character that has hexadecimal value nnn

\mnn
     Matches character with decimal value mnn, 1<m<9

\c   Character escape

White space characters (tab and space) are ignored within  the  quota-
tion marks.  To specify the actual space character use "\ ".






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2.7.  Interactive lexical analyzers

     Normally, the scanners produced by DLG always have one  character
of  look-ahead  available.  This look-ahead causes the scanner to look
one character past the end of the current pattern  and  wait  for  the
next character if it is not yet available.

     This can cause unexpected behavior from interactive programs such
as command line interpreters which must respond to input upon newline.
Normally, the scanner would seek a character beyond the newline; forc-
ing the user to type an additional character before returning the car-
riage return token to the parser.

     The user may employ the DLG -i  command-line  option  to  request
that  unneeded  look-ahead  be removed whenever possible.  This allows
interactive parsers such as the interpreter  mentioned  above  to  get
tokens without the user having to type additional characters.  On some
systems special flags need to be set, so  that  the  scanner  actually
gets  the  characters  when  they  are received rather than having the
operating system buffer them.  On BSD unix the cbreak mode needs to be
used to accomplish this (e.g. stty cbreak).

     There are situations where  the  character  look-ahead  is  still
required.  Typically, this occurs when two patterns have the same pre-
fix.  For example, patterns A and Ab can only be distinguished by exa-
mining  the  character following pattern A.  A b character would indi-
cate that the token associated  with  the  second  pattern  should  be
returned.   Also,  any  pattern  that has a closure, + or *, must have
look-ahead to determine the end of the pattern, since the  pattern  by
definition can be repeated indefinitely.

2.8.  DLG lexical input

     The user can specify that DLG is to take its input from a  stream
or  from  a  function.   The  function  must  behave like getchar() by
returning a new character per invocation.  The function must return -1
when  no  more  characters  are  available  to  signal  "end-of-file."
Presumably, the function would read characters from  some  buffer  and
hand  them  one by one to DLG upon request.  For example, a user might
define the following.




char text_edit_buf[BIG];

int nextchar()
{
    static char *p = &text_edit_buf[0];
    return (p < &text_edit_buf[BIG]) ? *(p++) : -1;
}






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PCCTS 1.00


Then, when invoking the parser, the user would call:




{
        ...
    ANTLRf(start_symbol(), nextchar);
    ...
}



2.9.  Tracking pattern position

     There are several global variables available in the scanners pro-
duced  by  DLG  to  keep  track of the position of a pattern within an
input stream.  zzline tracks vertical position and must be  explicitly
updated  by the user's grammar. zzbegcol and zzendcol track horizontal
position-column number within a line.  They are maintained by the  DLG
automaton  for  characters  that  are  normally  one  character  wide.
zzendcol needs to be corrected for cases when the character is not one
character wide, e.g. tabs or carriage return.

     To enable the position tracking, a #define ZZCOL needs to be  put
in  an  action  in  the  lexical  specification or -DZZCOL needs to be
included in the command line when compiling the C code for the lexical
analyzer.

     This section described how a stream of input  characters  can  be
collected  into  a  sequence  of  tokens  and how one can act upon the
recognition of particular tokens.  Sentences in a  language  are  com-
posed of tokens and are described using a set of rules.  The next sec-
tion presents the PCCTS meta-language for describing language syntax.

3.  Syntactic analysis

     Once the lexical structure of a language has been specified,  the
way  in  which  tokens  can  be  combined  to  form  sentences must be
described.  The set of valid sentences in a language is described by a
set  of  rules, written in an appropriate meta-language, that impose a
structure on the sequence of input tokens.

     In most parser-generator tools, context-free grammars are  speci-
fied  in  a  notation which is equivalent to BNF [Nau63]. However, the
notation used in regular expressions to  permit  repetition,  alterna-
tives,  etc.  can  be  used  to extend BNF (EBNF) so that context-free
grammars can be expressed more concisely.  This also has the advantage
of being more consistent with the regular expression notation and pro-
viding additional information which can be used to create a more effi-
cient  parser.   For these reasons, PCCTS accepts an EBNF-like grammar
notation.

     The input for PCCTS differs from EBNF primarily in  that  ::=  is



                                                               Page 22

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replaced  by  :  and non-terminals are distinguished from terminals by
requiring all non-terminals to begin with a lowercase  letter,  rather
than  by  bracketing  non-terminals with <>.  Further, since rules can
become long when actions are embedded, each rule is terminated by a  ;
symbol.  These modifications are not arbitrary, but mirror the differ-
ences between YACC grammars and BNF (although PCCTS provides a  number
of extensions beyond YACC).

     As an example rule, consider:




block: "begin" (statement)* "end" ;



It indicates that rule a is defined to be the word  "begin",  followed
by zero or more statement's, followed by the word "end".

     This section describes the syntax of PCCTS rules and  the  method
by which rules communicate at run-time.

3.1.  PCCTS rule definitions

     A rule is formally defined, in PCCTS's own notation, as:




rule    :   NonTerminal                 /* rule name */
            { "!" }                     /* turn off automatic AST construction */
            { {"\<"} InheritAction }    /* downward-inheritance ("input") */
            { "\>" InheritAction }      /* upward-inheritance ("output") */
            { QuotedTerm }              /* name for error reporting */
            ":" block ";"               /* actual rule elements */
            { Action }                  /* fail action */
        ;

block   :   alt ("\|" alt)*
        ;

alt     :   ( element )*
        ;

element :   TokenTerm  { "^" | "!" }
        |   QuotedTerm { "^" | "!" }
        |   NonTerminal { "!" }
            { {"\<"} InheritAction } { "\>" InheritAction }
        |   Action
        |   "\(" block "\)" { "\*" | "\+" } { InheritAction }
        |   "\{" block "\}" { InheritAction }
        ;




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PCCTS 1.00


where InheritAction is a C expression enclosed in [ ]  used  for  both
upward-  and downward-inheritance.  QuotedTerm is a regular expression
and TokenTerm is a label associated with some lexeme.

3.1.1.  Subrules

     Rules that employ  EBNF  constructs  implicitly  define  subrules
according to the following syntax:

(i)  b  =(a  | a  | ... | a ); match 1 time
      i    1    2          m
[Figure omitted]

(ii) b  ={a  | a  | ... | a }; match 0 or 1 times
      i    1    2          m
[Figure omitted]

(iii)b  =(a  | a  | ... | a )*; match 0 or more times
      i    1    2          m
[Figure omitted]

(iv) b  =(a  | a  | ... | a )+; match 1 or more times
      i    1    2          m
[Figure omitted]


where a  represents an alternative (list of rule elements).
       i
     With each enclosing set of meta-symbols, a new level of  alterna-
tives  is  permitted.   Each  rule or subrule thus created is called a
"block." In terms of the recognizer generated,  blocks  generated  for
rules and subrules are virtually indistinguishable.  Subrules are like
macro expansions of rules.  However, there is no label associated with
a subrule and thus cannot be referred to by another rule or from else-
where within that rule.

     Consider the following rule which uses EBNF constructs:




e12 :   {"\+" | "\-"} VAR
    |   (FuncName | ProcName) parameterList
    |   "[0-9]+"
    ;



     Rule e12 has  3  alternatives.   The  first  alternative  has  an
optional  block  with 2 alternatives as its first element.  The { } is
an optional subrule.  VAR is a simple token.  The optional block  says
that a VAR can have a plus or minus in front, but it is not necessary.
The second alternative of rule a also  begins  with  a  subrule.   The
block  indicates  that  this alternative must begin with a function or



                                                               Page 24

PCCTS 1.00


procedure name.  parameterList is some  other  rule  which  presumably
looks for a list of parameters.  Alternative 3 is simply a token which
recognizes an integer number.

     Subrule meta-symbols alter the associativity of the | alternative
operator  and  can  be  nested  to any number of levels.  |'s have the
lowest precedence.




a: B | C  D ;



     Rule a specifies that the parser should match either B  or  C  D.
It  will not match a D preceded by a B or C.  The following version of
a will accomplish that:




a: (B | C) D;



     Empty alternatives called epsilon transfers can also be  used  to
imply optionality.  They are useful when you want an action to be per-
formed when nothing is matched by the other alternatives of the block.




a: B | C | ;
b: { B | C } ;



     Rules a and b are identical in what  they  match.   However,  the
resulting C code could be very different.  Also note that with rule a,
an action can placed in the empty alternative to be executed when a  B
or C is not matched.  Rule b does not have this capability.

     Subrules are allowed at most one parameter which must be of  type
Attrib.   The  attribute  $0  receives  the  inherited  parameter  for
subrules.  Subrules return values in $0  as  well  (which  become  the
appropriate $i in the enclosing subrule/scope above).  $0 is initially
undefined in rules and in  subrules  with  no  explicit  parameter  or
default $0 initialization.  See section 3.1.2.

3.1.2.  Rule communication

     An advantage of LL parsers over LR parsers  is  that  inheritance
(rule/subrule  communication)  is  relatively  simple  and  efficient.



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PCCTS allows each non-terminal to have an arbitrary set  of  downward-
inherited  (parameters) and upward-inherited (return value) attributes
(see section 4.1.6).  The specification syntax is  presented  in  this
section  whereas  the use of rule communication is illustrated in sec-
tion 4.1.6.2:




rule[parameters] > [return_type(s)] : X  | X  | ... | X  ;
                                       1    2          m


which provide more powerful attribute handling than  can  be  achieved
with  the "$ variables" found in systems like YACC (and also supported
in PCCTS, primarily to ease the transition  for  users  familiar  with
YACC and to communicate with the lexical analyzer).

     Communicating with other rules should be as flexible as it is  in
a  programming language.  Hence, in addition to the standard attribute
mechanism, PCCTS supports the familiar high-level  language  parameter
passing  scheme.   The arguments to a rule must be consistent with the
parameter specifications given with the definition of the  rule.   For
example,




<<
#define GLOBAL 1
#define LOCAL 2
>>

prog    :    <<Sym *vars;>>
             TYPE dlist[GLOBAL] > [vars]
             <<OperateOn(vars);>>
             ...
        ;

/* Recognize a list of declarations.  The scoping level is passed
 * in and the list of symbols is returned.
 */
dlist[int level] > [Sym *list]
        :    <<$list=NULL;>>
             VAR           <<add($list, $1, $level);>>
             (    ","
                 VAR       <<add($list, $2, $level);>>
             )*
        ;



where add() is some function that adds an element to a list.  Here  we
have  used  the  attributes  only as a means of communicating with the



                                                               Page 26

PCCTS 1.00


lexical analyzer.

     In contrast to most programming languages, more  than  one  value
can  be  returned.  Each return value is set by simply referring to it
by the name given in the return value definition (prefixed  with  $) -
e.g.  $list in the dlist example.

     Subrules may not have return types  nor  parameter  list  defini-
tions.   They  may only pass a single attribute which becomes the ini-
tial value of $0 in the subrule.[1]

     To illustrate the effect of rule communications upon local  vari-
ables and scoping, consider:




rule[int a, Attrib b] > [float q, int r]        /* a,b visible to rule */
   :  <<int i,j; printf("starting rule a\n");>> /* i,j visible to rule  */
      ...
      (   <<int i;>>        /* i hides rule-local i */
          ...
          (    <<int i,r;>> /* def hides outer scope i; local r can't be used */
               <<$r=5;>>    /* $r is return value not local var */
          )
      )
   ;



Note that return values and parameters are always given priority  over
local  variables.  While generating C code for a rule, ANTLR scans the
actions and translates references  to  return  values  and  parameters
irrespective of scope.

3.1.3.  Miscellaneous notes

     The user may attach a string to a non-terminal that is passed  on
to the error reporting macro/function zzsyn().  See section 5 on error
reporting for more details.

     The  user  may  elect  to  have  PCCTS  automatically   construct
abstract-syntax-trees  (AST's).  To disable automatic AST construction
for a rule, employ the ! as indicated above in the rule grammar.   See
section 4.2 on abstract-syntax-trees.



_________________________
  [1] An earlier version of PCCTS treated subrules  and
rules identically with respect to parameters and return
values.   The   current   distinction   represents   an
extension to the handling of rules.




                                                               Page 27

PCCTS 1.00


3.1.4.  LL(k) parsing

     ANTLR attempts to build parsers that use as little look-ahead  as
possible.   Ambiguities  force  ANTLR to attempt resolution using more
and more tokens of look-ahead.  For example, ANTLR  tries  to  resolve
LL(1) ambiguities with LL(2).  If the grammar construct is still ambi-
guous, LL(k>2) is tried until either all ambiguities are  resolved  or
the  user-defined maximum k has been reached.  A subrule or rule which
requires LL(k>1) does not constrain  all  others  to  LL(k>1).   ANTLR
builds  mixed  model  parsers where each parsing decision is made with
the smallest of amount of look-ahead possible.   The  -k  command-line
option  is used to bound the maximum number of tokens of look-ahead to
be used by ANTLR-generated parsers.

     Most programming language constructs that cannot be described  in
LL(1)  can  be  easily  described  in LL(2).  Typically, LL(2) is only
required in a handful of rules yielding a general LL(1) parser with  a
few  anomalies.  For example, when parsing the C programming language,
a left-parenthesis could be the beginning of a type-cast or the begin-
ning  of  an expression.  With two tokens of look-ahead a parser could
use the token  following  the  parenthesis  to  determine  whether  an
expression  or  type-cast followed.  A more common problem lies in the
definition of labels.  The following grammar fragment illustrates  the
problem.




stat    :    { WORD ":" }          /* label definition */
             (
             |    "if" ...
             |    "while" ...
             .
             .
             |    WORD "\(" ...    /* forward ref to function */
             |    FUNC "\(" ...    /* ref to function already seen */
             )
        ;



With only one token of look-ahead, function stat() could not determine
whether  a  WORD on the input stream was to be matched as a label or a
yet to be seen function.  However, if two tokens or more  were  avail-
able, the colon or left-parenthesis following WORD would unambiguously
indicate which alternative to match.

3.2.  Grammar ambiguities

     PCCTS parsers are of  the  top-down,  recursive  descent  variety
which  implies  that  all  parsing  decisions  must be left-decidable-
decidable given a finite sequence of input tokens looking from left to
right across productions.  Because of this limitation, there are gram-
mars for which PCCTS cannot construct a parser.  However, any language



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PCCTS 1.00


can  be  described  by several, equivalent grammars.  Ambiguities that
arise in a grammar may often be circumvented by modifying that grammar
while still recognizing the same language.

     A grammar is considered ambiguous (in  PCCTS's  opinion)  if  one
input   sequence   of  k  tokens  can  be  matched  by  two  different
productions/alternatives within the same block.   For  example,  if  k
equals one,




a   :   A B
        |   A C
        ;



is ambiguous because if all the parser "sees" is A, it will be  unable
to choose between alternatives one and two.  ANTLR reports the follow-
ing error message:




Antlr parser generator   Version 1.00   1989, 1990, 1991
"t.g", line 1: warning: alts 1 and 2 ambiguous upon { A }



If we allow two tokens of look-ahead (with -k 2), a parser  would  see
either  A B  or  A C  and could uniquely determine which production to
match.  If subrules and/or rule references are used, the set of possi-
ble input permutations grows quickly.




a   :   A (B | D) E F H
        |   A b E G H
        ;

b   :   B
        ;



Rule a is ambiguous when k equals one  or  two  since  A B  can  start
either production.  If we increase k to three, rule a is still ambigu-
ous because A B E begins both productions.  Only when k is set to four
is  a  unambiguous.   ANTLR  applies a similar logic when constructing
parsers.  When an ambiguity occurs  at  k==i,  k=i+1  is  tried  until
either  the ambiguity is resolved or the maximum look-ahead defined by
the user is reached (in which case the ambiguity is  reported  to  the



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PCCTS 1.00


user).  ANTLR reports the following for k==2,




Antlr parser generator   Version 1.00   1989, 1990, 1991
"t.g", line 1: warning: alts 1 and 2 ambiguous upon { A }, { B }



Note the sequence A B is denoted by the singleton set  { A }  followed
by  the singleton set { B }.  In general, ambiguous input sequences of
k tokens are represented by a sequence of k sets.

     The -pa command-line option can be used to print out  the  user's
grammar  (minus  actions) annotated with the input token permutations.
The set sequence { A B }, { C D } means that the following four  input
token permutations are possible:




A C
A D
B C
B D



3.3.  Look-ahead size

     The user's grammar can be analyzed  using  any  integer  k  value
(limited  by  machine size and how long the user wants to wait).  How-
ever, parsers constructed by ANTLR always use k values  equal  to  the
nearest  power  of two greater than or equal to the k specified by the
user.  ANTLR parsers treat the look-ahead  as  a  circular  buffer  in
which a "modulo k" operation is performed repeatedly.  If k is a power
of two, this operation reduces  to  a  logical-and  operation  whereas
other values generally require a divide - i.e. a time consuming opera-
tion.  Since the modulo operation is performed at least once for  each
input token, a divide operation would seriously degrade parser perfor-
mance.  The #define constant LL_K is set by ANTLR to the k  associated
with  parser execution.  Note that files not constructed by ANTLR will
need to define LL_K if they include antlr.h.  This can be handled with
a "-DLL_K=k" command-line option on most C compilers.

3.4.  ANTLR parser construction

     ANTLR generates parsers in pure  C  code--i.e.  non-interpretive,
mutually-recursive sets of functions.  There is exactly one C function
for every rule present in an ANTLR  grammar  description.  Transforma-
tions  exist  to  convert grammar constructs to C language constructs.
To perform lexical analysis, ANTLR prepares a DLG input file that will
be  converted  to  a C scanner by DLG and then linked into the parser.



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Because of ANTLR's  flexibility,  C  code  generation  templates  vary
depending  on  command-line  options  and  #define's  [Par90].   ANTLR
parsers are fast primarily because they never have to back up and  map
EBNF  grammar constructs to efficient target language constructs.  The
current k tokens of look-ahead always tells the parser which  alterna-
tive  to  choose.   Also,  C's efficient function invocation mechanism
allows references to other rules to be handled quickly.

3.4.1.  Efficiency

     The way grammars are described has a big impact on phrase  recog-
nition  speed.  Rules invoking other rules with tail-recursion (right-
recursion) like




/* S l o w  A n d  U g l y */
a: B c ;
c: a | ;



can be replaced with




/* F a s t e r  B u t  S t i l l  U g l y */
a: B (a | ) ;



or, better yet,




/* F a s t e s t  A n d  R e a d a b l e */
a: B (B)* ;



which is more concise and infinitely more readable.

     This example leads us to two important generalizations:



o    Subrules are much faster than invoking another rule to match  the
     same subgrammar.

o    Use the ( )* and ( )+ closure operators instead  of  tail  recur-
     sion.   This generates a while loop instead of recursive function



                                                               Page 31

PCCTS 1.00


     calls.


     Rules or subrules with many alternatives tend to generate  bigger
and  slower  programs.  This arises from the fact that a linear search
implemented by a sequence of if statements is used to determine  which
alternative to choose.  Although general LL(k) parsing makes it diffi-
cult to optimize this search for the correct alternative, future  ver-
sions  of  PCCTS  will probably make a number of special-case improve-
ments, such as generating a  switch  statement  for  each  alternative
selection problem which is LL(1).

     In many parser-generators, such as  YACC,  adding  actions  to  a
grammar  can  cause  rules to be split, introducing ambiguities and/or
extra states in the generated parser.  In contrast,  actions  have  no
affect  on  the  structure  of  the  recognizers constructed by PCCTS.
PCCTS simply generates C code templates that implement the  recognizer
and  embeds C code for the user-supplied actions at the proper points.
User actions have no significant affect on parsing speed.

3.4.2.  Debugging parsers

     PCCTS parsers have one function for each rule.  The function name
will  coincide with the rule it was constructed from and therefore can
be referenced from within a source-level debugger.  Breakpoints can be
set  so  that  parser  execution stops before or after certain grammar
fragments of interest have been recognized.  PCCTS parsers are easy to
follow  because  parsing  decisions are made using simple if and while
statements.

     Often it is convenient to track the sequence of rule  invocations
made  in an PCCTS parser.  The -gd command-line option forces PCCTS to
generate code that calls zzTRACE() with the  rule  name  in  which  it
appears as an argument.  zzTRACE() can be a macro or a function.

3.5.  PCCTS parser template

     The following code template can be used to begin parser  develop-
ment.


















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/*
 * A N T L R  P a r s e r  T e m p l a t e
 *
 * Terence Parr, Hank Dietz and Will Cohen
 * CARP Research Group
 * Purdue University Electrical Engineering
 * PCCTS Version 1.00
 */
#header << /* Define Attrib/AST or include standard package */ >>

/* O p t i o n a l */
#token "[\t\ ]+"    << zzskip(); >>                /* Ignore White */
#token "\n"         << zzline++; zzskip(); >>      /* Track Line # */






<<
main() { ANTLR(startSymbol(), stdin); }

zzcr_attr(attr, token, text)
Attrib *attr;
int token;
char *text;
{
    /* *attr = Function(text, token) */
}

zzd_attr(attr) Attrib *attr; { /* destroy attribute */ }

zzcr_ast(ast, attr, tok, text)
AST *ast;
Attrib *attr;
int tok;
char *text;
{
    /* *ast = Function(attr) */
}













                                                               Page 33

PCCTS 1.00






/* node constructor for use with #[] */
AST zzmk_ast(node, user_args)
AST *node;               /* newly created node */
{
    /* fill in node->fields */
    return node;
}

zzd_ast(ast) AST *ast; { /* destroy AST node pointed to by 'ast' */ }

#define zzdef0(zero)    /* *(zero) = initial $0 attrib */
>>

/* P u t  R u l e s  H e r e */



3.6.  Grammatical actions

     Actions are blocks of C code enclosed in <<  and  >>.   They  are
placed  in  the  ANTLR-generated  C files according to position in the
corresponding grammar file.  In general, an action following  a  token
or  non-terminal  reference is executed after that grammar element has
been recognized.  There is no restriction concerning  their  placement
within  rules.   However,  actions  cannot be specified between rules.
They may only be used before and after the set of rules.

3.6.1.  Init Actions

     If an action is specified before any  grammar  element  is  found
after  the  : in a rule definition or after the start of a subrule, it
is placed before any ANTLR generated C code for that rule or  subrule.
This allows the user to define variables and execute C code in a scope
local to that rule or subrule; any  C  code  given  is  executed  just
before  the  rule  or  subrule  is applied.  For example, consider the
definition of a rule a:




a   :   <<List *p=NULL;>>   /* Get a type followed by a list of vars */
        Type
        (   <<int i=0;>>
            Var <<append(p, i++, $1);>>
        )*
                <<OperateOn(p);>>
    ;






                                                               Page 34

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The init action <<List *p=NULL;>> defines a local auto variable called
p  and  initializes  it to NULL.  The subrule also has an init action,
<<int i=0;>>, which is executed every time the subrule is entered.

     The init actions of optional blocks are executed whether  or  not
the  elements  in  the  block are recognized.  This is due to the fact
that subrules (C code block) must be entered  in  order  to  determine
whether  or  not  that  grammar  construct can be matched on the input
stream.  This can be confusing, but on the other hand, we can force  a
variable  to  have  a  value even if nothing is matched in an optional
block.  For example,




a   :   <<Sym *p;>>
        ...
        { <<p=NULL;>> ":" Type <<p=$2;>> }
        <<OperateOn(p);>>
        ...
    ;



     The init-actions of closure blocks (( )* subrules)  are  executed
only  once - upon entry to the block.  This allows local variable ini-
tialization within closure blocks.

     Only $0 can be referenced in an init-action  since  nothing  will
have been matched when the action executes.  Default $0 initialization
occurs before init-actions are executed.


3.6.2.  Fail actions

     Fail actions are actions that are  placed  immediately  following
the  ;  rule  terminator.   They are executed after a syntax error has
been detected but before a message is printed and the attributes  have
been  destroyed (optionally with zzd_attr(); see the section on attri-
butes).  However, attributes are not valid here because one  does  not
know at what point the error occurred and which attributes even exist.
Fail actions are often useful for cleaning up data structures or free-
ing memory.  For example,




a   :   <<List *p=NULL;>>
        ( Var <<append(p, $1);>> )+
                <<OperateOn(p); rmlist(p);>>
    ;
    <<rmlist(p);>>





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PCCTS 1.00


The ( )+ loop matches a lists of  variables  (Var's)  and  collections
them  in a list.  The fail-action <<rmlist(p);>> specifies that if and
when a syntax error occurs, the elements are to be free()'ed.

3.6.3.  Actions appearing outside of rules

     When PCCTS is used to construct a complete compiler, it is useful
to  be able to incorporate support code written in C in the same file.
For example, there must always be a  main  specified  and  the  ANTLR-
generated  parser must be invoked using the ANTLR macro.  Hence, PCCTS
allows arbitrary C code to appear as "actions" outside of the  grammar
rules.  The PCCTS description




<<
#include "junk"
static int local_to_the_parser;
main() {ANTLR(a(), stdin);}
>>

a: a_stuff ;
b: b_stuff ;

<< hello() { printf("Hello?"\n"); } >>



will result in the following output C code:




#include "junk"
static int local_to_the_parser;
main() {ANTLR(a(), stdin);}

a()
{
    ... code to recognize a_stuff ...
}

b()
{
    ... code to recognize b_stuff ...
}

hello() { printf("Hello?"\n"); }



     Note that although these segments of C code look like  "actions,"
and the same rules apply concerning the use of escape characters, they



                                                               Page 36

PCCTS 1.00


are not actions per se.  Hence, no attribute values are accessible.

4.  Attribute handling

     Given a grammar, PCCTS constructs a  C  program  that  recognizes
phrases  in  the  language  described by that grammar.  No translation
from source language to output language is  performed;  the  resulting
parser  merely  complains  if a syntax error is detected.  To effect a
transformation, actions must  be  embedded  within  the  grammar  that
either perform an immediate translation or create an intermediate-form
which is translated at a later time.  Grammar actions have  access  to
lexical information via run-time objects called attributes which are a
function of the token number and the text of the lexeme found  on  the
input  stream.   PCCTS  also supports the creation and manipulation of
abstract-syntax-trees (AST's) to handle more  complicated  transforma-
tions.  This section describes the use of attributes, attribute inher-
itance as well as other forms of rule communication, and the  handling
of AST's.

4.1.  General attribute handling

     Attributes are objects that are associated  with  all  rules  and
rule  elements including block elements like { }.  Attributes are gen-
erally identified by $i (where i is a positive integer) and  are  used
in actions to identify the values of rule elements.  Attributes behave
like variables.  They are mentioned and labeled at analysis-time,  but
have values only at run-time.  The positive integers uniquely identify
an element within the currently active block and  within  the  current
alternative  of  that block.  With the invocation of each new block, a
new set of attributes becomes active and the previously active set  is
temporarily  inactive (unless $i.j, $$ or $inheritance_attr attributes
are used; see sections 4.1.4).  Attributes  are  scoped  exactly  like
local stack-based variables in C.

     $-variables refer to user-defined objects  associated  with  each
rule  element.   The  zzcr_attr()  function transforms lexical objects
into grammar attributes.  Attributes  associated  with  terminals  are
implicitly created and are a function of lexemes.  However, attributes
of non-terminals and subrules are explicitly  manipulated  by  actions
provided  by  the  user.   Terminals, which are lexical tokens, simply
have a value associated with them and  are  generally  referenced  not
reset  by  actions.   Attributes  that  are returned from or passed to
blocks are considered synthetic attributes.  Rules  and  subrules  may
communicate via attributes or with familiar high-level language param-
eter passing techniques (see sections 3.1.2 and 4.1.6).

     PCCTS requires that the user define the data type or structure of
the  attributes  as  well  as  specify  how to convert from lexemes to
attributes.  This provides significant control over  what  information
attributes  carry and how the lexical analyzer should react to lexical
objects found on the input stream.  The  type  of  the  attributes  is
always  defined by a C typedef named Attrib and must be defined before
antlr.h is included in  your  C  program.   Using  the  PCCTS  #header
instruction,  the  user  may  specify the C definition or #include the



                                                               Page 37

PCCTS 1.00


file needed to define Attrib.  The action associated with  #header  is
placed  in every C file generated from the input grammar files.  Any C
file created by the user that includes antlr.h must once again  define
Attrib before #include'ing antlr.h.

     Attributes are stored and accessed in stack  fashion.   With  the
recognition  of  each  element in a rule, a new attribute is pushed on
the stack-i.e.  becomes available.  In other words, the ith  attribute
is  not  available  until the ith rule element has been matched.  If a
rule element is something other than a simple token,  many  attributes
may  be  pushed  on  the attribute stack until they reduce to a single
attribute for that rule reference or subrule.

     For example, if attributes are to be simple integers, the follow-
ing C definition is sufficient and necessary




typedef int Attrib;.



However, this does not specify how those integer attributes  are  con-
verted from character strings in the input stream.

4.1.1.  Attribute creation

     The attributes associated with terminals must be  a  function  of
the  text  and  the  token  number associated with that lexeme.  These
values are passed to zzcr_attr() which computes the  attribute  to  be
associated with that lexeme.  The user must define a function or macro
that has the following form:




zzcr_attr(attr, token, text)
Attrib *attr;   /* Pointer to attribute associated with this lexeme */
int token;
char *text;     /* text associated with lexeme */
{
    /* *attr = F(text,token); */
}



Consider the following Attrib and zzcr_attr() definition.









                                                               Page 38

PCCTS 1.00






typedef union {int ival; float fval;} Attrib;

zzcr_attr(attr, token, text)
Attrib *attr;
int token;
char *text;
{
        switch ( token )
        {
                case INT   : attr->ival = atoi(text); break;
                case FLOAT : attr->fval = atof(text); break;
        }
}



The typedef specifies that attributes are integer  or  floating  point
values.   When  the  regular  expression  for  a floating point number
(which has been  labeled  FLOAT)  is  matched  on  the  input  stream,
zzcr_attr() converts the string of characters representing that number
to a C float.

     The next attribute example  is  more  involved.   Attributes  are
either  symbol  table  entries  or  integer  values.  Variables (VAR),
intrinsic types (BuiltInType) and parameters (PARAMETER) found on  the
input  stream  are  converted  to symbol table pointers.  Integers are
converted to C int's.




/* Assume Sym, zzsymget() are defined elsewhere */
#header <<typedef union { Sym *var; int val; } Attrib;>>

<<
Sym *cursym;

main() { ANTLR(prog(), stdin); }















                                                               Page 39

PCCTS 1.00






zzcr_attr(attr, token, text)
Attrib *attr;
int token;
char *text;
{
    switch ( token )
    {
        case WORD :
        case BuiltInType :
        case PARAMETER :
        case VAR : attr->var = cursym;
                   break;
        case INT : attr->val = atoi(text);
                   break;
    }
}
>>






#token WORD "[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z_]*"
                <<{ extern Sym *cursym;

                                cursym = zzsymget(zzlextext);
                                if ( cursym == NULL ) cursym = zzsymnew(zzlextext);
                                else LA(1) = cursym->token;
                        }>>

prog :   ... VAR ... ;




     When a WORD is matched on the input stream, the character  string
is  looked  up  in the symbol table.  If it exists, a pointer to it is
placed in cursym and the current look-ahead token (LA(1)) is  modified
accordingly.  Otherwise, a symbol table record is created leaving cur-
sym pointing to it.  Also of note, we cannot place the zzsymget() call
into  zzcr_attr()  because  of  the look-ahead.  zzcr_attr() is called
after the token has been recognized; modifying  LA(1)  in  zzcr_attr()
would  have  no effect.  Parsing decisions are made based upon current
look-ahead and, therefore, the lexical action must "compute" the token
value before the parser receives it.

4.1.2.  Attribute destruction

     The user may elect  to  "destroy"  all  attributes  created  with



                                                               Page 40

PCCTS 1.00


zzcr_attr().   A macro or function called zzd_attr(), is executed once
for every attribute.  This occurs collectively at  the  end  of  every
block.   zzd_attr() is passed the address of the attribute to destroy.
This can be useful when memory is allocated with zzcr_attr() and needs
to  be  free()'ed.   For  example, sometimes zzcr_attr() needs to make
copies of some lexical objects temporarily.   Rather  than  explicitly
inserting  code  into the grammar to free these copies, zzd_attr() can
be used to do it implicitly.  Notice that this concept is  similar  to
the constructors and destructors of C++ [Str87].

     Attributes are often character strings.  Copies  of  the  lexical
text  buffer  (managed by DLG) are made which later need to be deallo-
cated.  This can be accomplished with code similar to the following.




#header <<#define zzd_attr(attr) {free(*(attr));}
          typedef char *Attrib;>>

<<
zzcr_attr(attr, token, text)
Attrib *attr;
int token;
char *text;
{
    extern char *malloc();

    if ( token == StringLiteral )
    {
        *attr = malloc( strlen(text)+1 );
        strcpy(*attr, text);
    }
}
>>



4.1.3.  Standard attribute definitions

     Some typical attribute types are defined  in  the  PCCTS  include
directory.   These  standard attribute types are contained in the fol-
lowing include files:


charbuf.h
     Attributes are fixed-size  buffers,  each  of  32  characters  in
     length.   If a string longer than 31 characters (31 + 1 '\0' ter-
     minator) is matched for a token, it is truncated  to  31  charac-
     ters.  The user can change this buffer length from the default 32
     by redefining ZZTEXTSIZE before  the  point  where  charbuf.h  is
     included.   The  text  for  an  attribute  must  be referenced as
     $i.text.




                                                               Page 41

PCCTS 1.00


int.hAttributes are int values derived from tokens  using  the  atoi()
     function.

charptr.h, charptr.c
     Attributes are pointers to dynamically-allocated  variable-length
     strings.   Although generally both more efficient and more flexi-
     ble than charbuf.h, these attribute  handlers  use  malloc()  and
     free(),  hence,  they  can  cause  memory fragmentation. The file
     charptr.c must be #include'd, or linked with, the  C  code  PCCTS
     generates for any grammar using charptr.h.


In addition to the standard library of attribute  handlers,  the  user
may  define  new  attribute  types and handlers - which should also be
placed in the PCCTS include directory.  The makefile template given in
section  1.4  knows where the include files live and will inform the C
compiler.

     The following example uses the charptr package:




#header <<#include "charptr.h">>

<<
#include "charptr.c"
main() { ANTLR(a(), stdin); }
>>

#token "\n"      <<zzskip();>>

a   :   "[a-z]+"  <<printf("matched %s\n", $1);>>
    ;



4.1.4.  Attribute references

     PCCTS accepts five basic attribute referencing notations:

$i   This format refers to the ith rule  element  within  the  current
     alternative which can be a rule reference, token or subrule.

$i.j This format extends the $i notation to allow the user to refer to
     attributes  at scopes above the current scope. i is the scope and
     j is the jth rule element within the  alternative  that  encloses
     the current scope.

$$   This is a shorthand for the $0 of the enclosing rule and  can  be
     referred to from an action anywhere within the rule.

$label
     $rule is identical to $$ where rule is the name of the  enclosing



                                                               Page 42

PCCTS 1.00


     rule.

     $parameter refers to one of the user-defined parameters given  in
     the enclosing rule definition.

     $return_value refers to one of  the  user-defined  return  values
     given in the enclosing rule definition.

$[token, text]
     This represents an attribute constructor.  Its value is  computed
     using zzcr_attr just like any other attribute with token and text
     as parameters.  This is an explicit method of attribute  creation
     whereas normally attributes are created implicitly - one for each
     input terminal.  This mechanism can be useful when  creating  AST
     nodes  which are functions of attributes or for passing values to
     subrules.  For example, if attributes were integers  and  integer
     tokens  were  labeled  NUM, $[NUM,"34"] would create an attribute
     whose value was 34. $[] returns an empty attribute node.

4.1.4.1.  $i references

     As a simple example of $i numbering in rules  with  alternatives,
consider the following.




a: B | C ;



Rule a has 2 alternatives.  $i refers to the ith rule element  in  the
current  block and within the same alternative.  So, in rule a, both B
and C are $1.

     Below, rule a has a subrule as the second  rule  element  and  is
referenced  as  $2  after the entire subrule has been matched.  Assume
that charptr.h attributes are in effect.




a : "ick" ("A" <<$0 = $1;>> | "B" <<$0 = $1;>>) "ugh"
    <<printf("$1,$2,$3 are %s,%s,%s\n", $1,$2,$3);>>
  ;



     In this case, one of the following will be printed  depending  on
whether "A" or "B" was found







                                                               Page 43

PCCTS 1.00






$1,$2,$3 are ick,A,ugh
$1,$2,$3 are ick,B,ugh



     $2 is the attribute of the subrule ("A"|"B") and  is  the  second
rule  element  of  rule  a  (outermost  level).   However,  within the
subrule, "A" and "B" are both $1.  The initial value  of  $0  will  be
undefined  unless it either inherits a value or is assigned a value by
defining the macro zzdef0.  This value  can,  of  course,  be  altered
within the subrule by using $0 on the left side of an assignment.

     $$ always refers to the $0 of the  outermost  scope  -  the  rule
scope  (i.e  $1.0).   $$ can be referenced from any user action within
any subrule.

4.1.4.2.  $i.j references

     The EBNF subrules of PCCTS introduce scoping  as  in  programming
languages.   To  access  attributes  at  scopes above (in an enclosing
scope) from within a user action, $i.j variables are used where  i  is
the  scope  and  j follows the normal attribute numbering.  Levels are
numbered from 1 starting at the rule level.  Each  subrule  increments
the  level.   Actions at level i cannot access attributes at level i+1
or below just like in a programming language.  Attributes of the  form
$i  are  accepted  as a shorthand.  When a level is not indicated, the
current scope will be assumed.  For example,




a   :    A B (C (D E) F) G ;



The following table summarizes levels and attribute numbers:

















                                                               Page 44

PCCTS 1.00



         ____________________________________________________
         ____________________________________________________|
         |  A   ||    $1.1     |   $1   |   rule a after A   |
         |______||_____________|________|____________________|
         |______||_____________|________|____________________|
         |  C   ||    $2.1     |   $1   |    (C (D E) F)     |
         |______||_____________|________|____________________|
         |______||_____________|________|____________________|
         |  E   ||    $3.2     |   $2   |       (D E)        |
         |______||_____________|________|____________________|
         |______||_____________|________|____________________|
         |  G   ||    $1.4     |   $4   |   rule a after G   |
         |______||_____________|________|____________________|


In this example, actions at level 1 (rule level) cannot access  attri-
butes  within any of the subrules.  Actions before the subrules cannot
access these lower attributes because they have not been  created  yet
(the  terminals  have  not  been  recognized).   Actions following the
subrules cannot access the lower attributes because they have all been
collapsed into one attribute--namely, $3.

4.1.4.3.  $label references

     Inheritance (parameters and  return  values)  and  rule-level  $0
attributes  are  referred to by name. $rule is identical to $$, but is
more informative.  The following two examples perform the  same  func-
tion,  but  the  first uses upward-inheritance and and the second uses
$rule notation.




#header <<#include "int.h">>

<<main() { ANTLR(start(), stdin); } >>

start :     <<int r;>>
            expr > [r] "\n" <<printf("result %d\n", r);>>
      ;

expr > [int result]
      :    "[0-9]+"        <<$result = $1;>>
           ( "\+" "[0-9]+" <<$result += $2;>> )*
      ;



Note that the next version does not  require  a  parameter  definition
since all rules implicitly return an attribute ($$, $rule).






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#header <<#include "int.h">>

<<main() { ANTLR(start(), stdin); } >>

start :     expr "\n" <<printf("result %d\n", $1);>>
          ;

expr  :    "[0-9]+"        <<$expr = $1;>>
           ( "\+" "[0-9]+" <<$expr += $2;>> )*
      ;



Similarly, $parameter refers to one of the user-defined parameters.

4.1.5.  $[token, text] attribute constructor

     This attribute is not automatically  destroyed  via  zzd_attr  if
zzd_attr  is  defined.  If necessary, the user must explicitly destroy
these attributes.  For example,




#header <<#include "charptr.h">>

<<
#include "charptr.c"
main() {ANTLR(a(), stdin);}
>>

a   :    <<Attrib b = $[0, "a string"];>>
         <<printf("b is %s\n", b);
           zzd_attr(&b); >>
    ;



which would yield




b is a string



Note that the token number is irrelevant for charptr  type  attributes
since its zzcr_attr is a function of the text only.




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4.1.6.  Inheritance

     Inheritance refers to the ability of a rule to obtain information
about  the  context  in which it was invoked.  Because ANTLR generates
top-down parsers, information can be carried down  through  each  rule
invocation  as  well  as  returned.   This  ability,  dubbed downward-
inheritance, provides significant power  because  a  rule  can  decide
which rule invoked it or gain some other context altering information.
LR parser-generators create parsers of the bottom-up variety and  will
never  be  able  to  pass information to a subrule because recognition
begins at the leaves of the parse-tree and works it way upwards to the
root (start symbol).

4.1.6.1.  $0 inheritance

     $0 is one mechanism by which attributes can be inherited from and
returned  to  an  invoking  block.  The inheritance mechanism uses the
attribute stack  to  initialize  the  $0  value  seen  by  a  subrule.
Subrules  can  only pass one parameter which is implicitly typed as an
attribute ($0).  The $0 of a subrule is undefined unless set by a user
action or by passing an attribute to that subrule.  For example,




decl :    TypeID
                  Var       <<$2.type = $1;>>
          ( "," Var <<$2.type = $0;>> )*[$1]
     ;



where the [ ] is an InheritAction mentioned above in the grammar for a
PCCTS  rule.   The  value  inside  is passed to the $0 of the subrule.
This syntax is also used to pass parameters to rules.  See  below  for
more  details.  In this case, we are passing the type of a declaration
(represented by the attribute associated  with  TypeID  -  $1  in  the
outermost  scope)  to  a  subrule  which  accepts  a list of variables
separated by commas.  This could alternatively be accomplished via




decl :    TypeID
          Var       <<$2.type = $1;>>
          ( "," Var <<$2.type = $1.1;>> )*
     ;



or with a local variable.






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decl :    <<Attrib type;>>
          TypeID    <<type = $1;>>
          Var       <<$2.type = type;>>
          ( "," Var <<$2.type = type;>> )*
     ;



     Unlike subrules, rules employ the C  hardware  stack  and  $0  is
never automatically set by inheritance.  Despite this, the inheritance
of a value for a rule's $0 can be accomplished by:




rule[Attrib dummy]: <<$0=$dummy;>> remainder_of_rule ;



This uses the  more  powerful  rule  communication  mechanism  and  an
assignment  to  $0  to  simulate  the  inheritance  mechanism used for
subrules.  Rules have a much more flexible inheritance  scheme  which,
combined  with  rule-local variables for subrule inheritance, make the
YACC-like attributes (Attrib's)  useful  primarily  for  communicating
with the lexical analyzer.

     If a macro called zzdef0 is #define'd, it is executed upon  entry
to  any  block (rule or subrule) via zzdef0(&($0)).  This macro can be
used to ensure that all attributes have a certain property.  For exam-
ple, if $0 is not set in a rule, then the $i in the invoking rule will
be undefined (some previous attribute typically).  Setting the $0 ini-
tially  to  NULL or some other meaningful value can be convenient.  If
attributes are string pointers, not assigning $0 to NULL  before  rule
completion  could cause an invoking rule to assume a valid pointer had
been returned (as $i).

     Note that use of zzdef0 is incompatible with the  use  of  $0  in
subrules  to  inherit  values, i.e., zzdef0 will destroy the inherited
value.

4.1.6.2.  Generalized rule communication

     PCCTS rules may pass parameters and return values just as C func-
tions  do  (though,  PCCTS  rules  can  return multiple values).  This
mechanism can be viewed as generalized attribute handling  where  each
rule defines its downward- and upward-inheritance attribute types.

4.1.6.2.1.  Downward-inheritance

     The syntax for PCCTS parameter passing (downward-inheritance)  is



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PCCTS 1.00


identical  to  that of the ANSI C Standard [ANS90] except that the ( )
is replaced by [ ].  Specifically, parameter declarations  are  comma-
separated lists of single declarations:




rule[type  var , ..., type  var ] : ... ;
         1    1           n    n


The parameter declarations are broken down into old style  C  declara-
tions when parsers are generated:




rule(var , ..., var )
type  va1 ;        n
    1..; 1
type  var ;
{   n    n
    /* Stuff to recognize rule */
}



which is recognized by both ANSI compliant and old-style C compilers.

     The parameters mentioned in the parameter declaration list may be
used  in user actions like any other variable just as in C except that
they must be preceded by a $.  The $ is consistent with references  to
the  attributes  associated  with  terminals and rule references.  For
example,




a[int i, int j] : <<printf("%d\n", $i+$j);>> ;



adds the two inherited attributes i and j and  prints  the  result  to
stdout.  It can be invoked in the following manner:




rule : a[3,4]
         ;







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4.1.6.2.2.  Upward-inheritance

     Return values are similarly declared via a  comma-separated  list
of types and names enclosed in [ ] (following the parameter definition
if any):




rule[parameters] > [type  var , ..., type  var ] : ... ;
                        1    1           n    n


The names given in the return value definition may be used  to  expli-
citly  set  the  return  values.  These may be treated like $-prefixed
variables and can referenced as well as set.  The names in the  return
value definition may not conflict with any parameter or local variable
defined elsewhere in that rule.




a[int i, int j] > [int x, int y] : <<$x = $i+$j; $y = 0;>> ;



Rule a can be invoked in the following manner:




rule :  <<int i,j;>>
                a[3,4] > [i,j]
         ;



which passes 3 and 4 to rule a which returns 7 and 0 placing them into
i and j respectively.

4.2.  Abstract-syntax-tree construction and manipulation

     Many translation problems can be accomplished with actions embed-
ded  in  a grammar that simply compute an output phrase and send it to
the output stream.  Unfortunately, most translation problems cannot be
implemented  in such a straightforward manner.  For this reason, PCCTS
supports an  abstract-syntax-tree  (AST)  mechanism  that  provides  a
framework  for  constructing and manipulating intermediate representa-
tions of the input stream.

     Without touching the grammar description,  the  user  may  direct
PCCTS (by using the -gt command-line option) to automatically generate
an AST of the input stream.  By default, this AST is a  flat  tree  (a
list) with one node for each input token.  Generally, the organization



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of an AST reflects the language structure used to recognize  an  input
phrase.   A  flat  AST does not contain information about the language
structure and, in effect, would only be a  copy  of  the  input.   The
default  automatic tree construction can be modified by annotating the
grammar with a few appropriately placed characters and  is  sufficient
to handle many situations (such as arithmetic expressions) well.

     Some intermediate-forms cannot be adequately described by  simple
grammar  annotations (e.g. type-trees for the C programming language).
A more general tree construction mechanism is  provided  by  PCCTS  to
allow  explicit intermediate-form tree description and is described in
section 4.2.4.

     AST nodes and subtrees, both automatically  and  explicitly  con-
structed,  are  referenced via #-variables.  The notation and behavior
of these variables is similar to that of  the  attribute  $-variables.
They are always implicitly typed as pointers to AST nodes and are gen-
erally associated with rule and token references; rules yield subtrees
and tokens yield nodes.

     PCCTS parsers manage the actual creation of nodes  and  the  con-
struction of the trees, but the user must describe what information an
AST node is to carry and how to fill in that information.

     The command-line option -gt must be used to  access  any  of  the
features  is  this  section.   Also  note that the PCCTS automatically
defines #define GENAST so that the user may write code that depends on
whether or not trees are being constructed.

4.2.1.  AST node creation

     PCCTS provides a default and an explicit node  constructor.   The
default  constructor  is  applied  for  each  token  in a rule defined
without the ! modifier (which indicates that the rule  should  disable
automatic  tree  construction)  and  is  a  function of the associated
attribute, token and lexical text.  The explicit constructor  is  user
defined and can take a variable number of arguments.

     A macro called zzcr_ast() can be defined to give a  default  node
definition  or  transformation.   Also,  user  actions embedded in the
grammar can modify AST fields.  AST nodes have the structure




struct _ast {
        struct _ast *right, *down;
        user_defined_fields
};



where user_defined_fields is  filled  in  via  the  #define  constant:
AST_FIELDS.   Only  the  user-defined fields should be modified by the



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user as right and down are handled by the code inserted by  PCCTS  and
could be subject to change.  zzcr_ast() is of the form




#define zzcr_ast(ast,attr,tok,text) *ast = F(attr, tok, text);



with




AST *ast;
Attrib *attr;
int tok;
char *text;



For example, a simple, but useful attribute and AST definition is




#header <<
typedef int Attrib;
#define AST_FIELDS int i;
#define zzcr_attr(attr, token, text) *(attr)=atoi(text)
#define zzcr_ast(ast, attr, tok, text) (ast)->i = *(attr)
>>



which defines both attributes and AST node data to be integers.   This
default  AST  node construction merely copies the integer found on the
input stream into the data field i of the new AST node.

     AST nodes may be explicitly constructed via a user-defined  func-
tion called zzmk_ast() which is defined as follows:















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#include <varargs.h>

/* fill in an AST node (which is passed in) and return a ptr to it */
AST *zzmk_ast(va_alist)
va_dcl
{
    va_list ap;
    AST *node;

    va_start(ap);
    node = va_arg(ap, AST *);  /* 1st arg is always a new AST node */
    ...
    /* fill in node */

    va_end(ap);
    return node;
}



Note that the K&R-style variable argument method is  not  required  if
you  are not interested in portability or a constant number of parame-
ters is passed (if only one node type is used, for example).  A  port-
able ANSI C version would look like the following:




#include <stdarg.h>

/* fill in an AST node (which is passed in) and return a ptr to it */
AST *zzmk_ast(AST *node, ...)
{
    va_list ap;

    va_start(ap, node);
    ...
    /* fill in node */

    va_end(ap);
    return node;
}



To make an  explicit  node  constructor  that  duplicates  the  simple
integer  AST  node definition given above, the following would suffice
(ANSI C version):






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#header <<
typedef int Attrib;
#define AST_FIELDS int i;
#define zzcr_attr(attr, token, text) *(attr)=atoi(text)
#define zzcr_ast(ast, attr, tok, text) (ast)->i = *(attr)
#include <stdarg.h>
>>

AST *zzmk_ast(AST *node, ...)
{
    va_list ap;

    va_start(ap, node);
    node->i = va_arg(ap, int);
    va_end(ap);
    return node;
}



Now, an action may construct tree nodes via #[integer].  For example,




a > [AST *node]
        :    <<$node = #[34];>>  /* return a node with 34 in it */
    ;




The #[ ] node constructor is detailed in section 4.2.6.

4.2.2.  AST node destruction

     A  routine  called  zzfree_ast(AST *t)  is  used  to   free   any
abstract-syntax-tree  created by an PCCTS parser.  If defined, a macro
called zzd_ast is applied to  each  AST  node  before  its  memory  is
free()'d.   This  can  be  used to free any additional memory that may
have been allocated by zzcr_ast and attached to the  AST  nodes.   The
zzd_ast  macro  is passed the address of the node it is to destroy and
is of the form




#define zzd_ast( treeNodePtr )  /* perform operation on tree node */






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zzd_ast must be defined  in  or  included  into  the  #header  action.
zzfree_ast() must be called explicitly by the user.

4.2.3.  Automatic AST construction

     For small or uniform  grammars  (like  C  language  expressions),
PCCTS  provides  a  concise tree construction mechanism.  Token refer-
ences are annotated to indicate

o    which tokens are to be subtree roots in the AST

o    which tokens are to be excluded from the AST

Any non-modified (non-root and non-excluded)  token  is  considered  a
leaf  node.   Rule  names are never included in the automatically gen-
erated AST's.  The  resulting  tree  is  composed  entirely  of  nodes
derived  from  grammar  terminals.   Each  rule  yields  one  subtree.
Subrules do not create subrules;  elements  enclosed  within  subrules
modify  the  subtree for the current rule.  Subtrees and nodes created
from terminal  references  are  accessed  from  user  actions  via  #-
variables which are discussed in section 4.2.6.

4.2.3.1.  Grammar annotation

     PCCTS generates an AST by placing C code into the parser that, at
parser  run-time,  builds  a tree and makes it available to the user's
program.  AST's are stored in a child-sibling  list  form  similar  to
that used by LISP.  This allows each level in the AST to have one root
and arbitrarily many children:




(root child  child  ... child )
           1      2          n


     Suffixing a token with ^ identifies it as a subtree  root.   Each
root-token  encountered  increases the depth of the current subtree by
1.  All further leaf tokens are considered siblings  to  the  previous
root  node.   A ! suffix on a terminal reference excludes the terminal
from the AST (no AST node is created or linked in). Suffixing  a  rule
reference  with  a  !  indicates that the subtree created by that rule
reference is not to be linked into the current subtree, but  is  still
to  be  made  available  via  #i  variables.   Rule references yield a
pointer to the root of the subtree created by  that  rule  invocation.
Therefore,  the subtree roots returned by rules become siblings in the
current rule.  Rules defined with a !  immediately following the  rule
name  (and before the :) do not automatically construct trees.  A ! in
the rule definition is like placing a !  after  each  grammar  element
within  that  rule.  #-variables do not exist for tokens suffixed with
!.  Hence, tree nodes are not automatically constructed  within  these
rules  although  references  to  other rules can still create subtrees
that can be accessed via #-variables.



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To demonstrate the actual construction of AST's, consider the  follow-
ing grammar fragment.




x   :   A B^ C! D y
    ;

y   :   E^ F
        ;



The grammar matches




A B C D E F



and considers B to be a subtree root.  Token C is to be ignored.  Rule
y  matches  E F  and  returns a subtree of depth 2 to rule x where the
root of rule y's subtree becomes available as #5.  The following  fig-
ure  sequence  shows  the  state  of the AST after each token has been
recognized.  The various AST nodes are  labeled  with  the  #-variable
that  could  be used to access that node.  The LISP-like child-sibling
notation is given after the input state.


                           [Figure omitted]


A o B C D E F,    ( A )



                           [Figure omitted]


A B o C D E F,    ( B A )



                           [Figure omitted]


A B C o D E F,    ( B A )



                           [Figure omitted]



                                                               Page 56

PCCTS 1.00


A B C D o E F,    ( B A D )



                           [Figure omitted]


A B C D E F o,    ( B A D ( E F ) )


Because of the ! suffix, terminal C does not appear in the AST.   Ter-
minal B is a root-token because of the ^ modifier and is therefore the
root of the subtree created for rule  x.   The  root  of  the  subtree
created  by  rule y is a sibling of the leaf nodes of rule x.  The way
in which rules describe a  grammar  effects  AST  construction.   e.g.
rules  x  and y could be rewritten to recognize the same input, but to
construct a different tree.




x   :   A B^ C! D E^ y
    ;

y   :   F
        ;



In this case the root-token E will become the root of the tree matched
up to that point (i.e. ( B A D )) yielding




( E ( B A D ) )



The final AST would be




( E ( B A D ) F )



4.2.3.2.  Operator precedence

     Operator associativity in the AST's is directly  related  to  the
precedence implicitly defined among the rules. For example, to specify
that the exponentiation operator, **, groups right-to-left, a  grammar
similar to the following would be required.



                                                               Page 57

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expr :   exp0 { "\*\*"^ expr }
     ;
exp0 :   "[0-9]+"
     ;



The input




3**4**5



would yield




( \*\* 3 ( \*\* 4 5 ) )



indicating that the 4**5 would be performed first.

     For a full explanation of arbitrary  tree  construction  see  the
section  on explicit AST construction.  However, the following example
is beneficial in this section.  Give a grammar  fragment  that  recog-
nizes  a simple assignment, a tree of the form: ( := expr lvalue ) can
be constructed via:




assign! : lvalue ":=" expr ";" <<#0 = #(#[$2], #3, #1);>>
        ;



The ! after the rule definition tells PCCTS to turn off automatic tree
construction  for this rule.  #[$2] is an AST node constructed from an
attribute.

4.2.3.3.  Example

     The following simple grammar illustrates the automatic  construc-
tion of AST's, the definition/creation of AST nodes, and the use of #i
variables



                                                               Page 58

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#header <<
    typedef int Attrib;
    #define AST_FIELDS int i, token;
    #define zzcr_attr(attr, token, text) *(attr)=atoi(text)
    #define zzcr_ast(ast, attr, tok, text) {(ast)->i = *(attr); (ast)->token=0;}
>>







<<
AST *root = NULL;   /* define a root ptr for AST; must be NULL */

void show(tree)     /* define function to show a tree node */
AST *tree;
{
    if ( tree->token != 0 ) printf(" %s", zztokens[tree->token]);
    else printf(" %d", tree->i);
}
void before() { printf(" ("); }
void after() { printf(" )"); }

main()
{
    ANTLR(expr(&root), stdin);       /* get an expr AST by passing &root */
    zzpre_ast(root, show, before, after);/* print out in LISP notation */
}
>>







expr  :  exp0 ( "\+"^ <<#1->token=LA(1);>> exp0 )* "\n"! ;
exp0  :  exp1 ( "\*"^ <<#1->token=LA(1);>> exp1 )* ;
exp1  :  "[0-9]+"
      ;



The actions in rules expr and exp0 set the  token  field  (defined  in
AST_FIELDS)  to  the  current token of look-ahead (LA(1)).  This tells
the predefined astpreorder() function to print the token value and not
the  number  value (field i).  Note that we must pass the address of a
root pointer to expr so that expr can make it  point  to  the  subtree



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constructed  for  that rule.  The newline character is not included in
the trees because of the ! suffix.  The + and  the  *  characters  are
considered  operators  in  our language and so they are modified by ^.
The job performed by the default  AST  node  creation  macro  zzcr_ast
could  have  just as easily been accomplished by removing zzcr_ast and
changing rule exp1 to be




exp1  :  "[0-9]+" <<#1->i = $1; #1->token = 0;>>
      ;



which is somewhat more explicit, but would  be  inconvenient  if  many
such actions were required.

     If the input to this PCCTS parser example were 3+4,  the  program
would print out




( \+ 3 4 )



which represents


                           [Figure omitted]


or, in child-sibling form


                           [Figure omitted]


Note that the AST is significantly different than the parse-tree which
can be represented by


                           [Figure omitted]


An input of 3+4*5 yields




( \+ 3 ( \* 4 5 ) )




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PCCTS 1.00


which represents


                           [Figure omitted]


or, in child-sibling form


                           [Figure omitted]


The 4*5 would be performed before the  addition  because  one  of  the
addition's operands is itself an operation (i.e. a multiply).

4.2.4.  Explicit AST construction

     The automatic tree construction scheme available  with  PCCTS  is
useful  for  building  AST's whose structure is similar to that of the
grammar parse trees.  It is  not  suited  to  applications  where  the
structure  of  the  grammar  bears  no  resemblance  to  the structure
required in the intermediate-form.  C declarations are a good  example
of  this  and  a  sample  "C  declaration  to  English"  translator is
developed in this section.

     Reasonable tree-construction and tree-rewriting systems, such  as
Purtilo  and  Callahan's [PuC89] NewYacc, have been developed but most
rely on bottom-up parser generators like YACC to build a parse-tree in
memory  which  is  later  traversed  to simulate inherited attributes.
PCCTS parsers construct AST's while parsing the input.  Rules can pass
subtrees as arguments to other rules and construct AST's without first
having to build a parse-tree.  PCCTS supports general AST construction
via two simple tree description constructs - AST node constructors and
AST tree definitions.

     The AST node constructor is similar to the constructor for attri-
butes ($[token,text]) except that AST node constructors yield pointers
to AST nodes whereas attribute constructors yield attributes (of  type
Attrib).   #[args]  creates  an AST node and passes a pointer to it to
zzmk_ast() with args as arguments.   Constructors  may  be  nested  to
create AST nodes from attributes; e.g.  #[ $[token,text] ].

     Trees are defined using a LISP-like notation because of its brev-
ity.




#( root, child , child , ..., child  )
              1       2            n


where root and child  are pointers to AST nodes which  can  themselves
be  trees  or  node iconstructors.  The return tree for any rule is #0



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which can appear on both the left- and right-hand side of  an  assign-
ment  statement.   Automatic construction of trees will proceed unless
the ! is included in the rule definition to override  the  normal  AST
mechanism.   The  same  grammar  may  have  some  rules  that  use the
automatic tree mechanism and other  rules  that  explicitly  construct
trees.   However,  the methods must not be mixed within the same rule.
In other words, do not assign a tree to #0 unless you have turned  off
the  automatic  tree  construction.   When default AST construction is
turned off, #-variables do not exist for terminals or rule  references
except  for  references  to  rules that construct trees (explicitly or
automatically).  Nodes for terminals must be explicitly  created  just
as the tree structure must be explicitly defined.

4.2.4.1.  Simple example

     We present a trivial example in this section  to  illustrate  the
AST node and tree constructors.




#header <<
    #include "int.h"
    #define AST_FIELDS int i;
>>
































                                                               Page 62

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<<
AST *root = NULL;   /* define a root ptr for AST; must be NULL */

void show(tree)     /* define function to show a tree node */
AST *tree;
{
    printf(" %d", tree->i);
}
void before() { printf(" ("); }
void after() { printf(" )"); }

AST *zzmk_ast(node, v)
AST *node;
int v;
{
    node->i = v;
    return node;
}

main()
{
    ANTLR(tree(&root), stdin);
    zzpre_ast(root, show, before, after);
}
>>






tree! :  NUM NUM NUM "\n"
         <<#0 = #( #[$[NUM,"101"]], #[$1], #[$2], #[$3] );>>
      ;

#token "\ "   <<zzskip();>>
#token NUM "[0-9]+"



Given the input 3 4 5, rule tree would return




( 101 3 4 5 )



The rule itself matches three integers  followed  by  a  newline.   As



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usual,  the four attributes $1-$4 exist, but #1-#4 do not because rule
tree was defined with a ! modifier.  To create AST nodes for the  ter-
minals  we  use the node construct #[$i] which returns a new node con-
structed through zzmk_ast.  The newline is not to be included  in  the
tree  so no AST node was constructed for it.  To illustrate the attri-
bute constructor, a root node was created as a function of  an  attri-
bute with a value of 101, though #[101] would have been easier.  There
is no corresponding terminal in the grammar  for  this  AST  node  and
therefore  one was created.  $[NUM,"101"] creates an attribute through
zzcr_attr which is passed to zzmk_ast when enclosed in #[].  The  sub-
tree created in rule tree is explicitly returned by making #0 point to
the root of the subtree.

4.2.4.2.  C declaration to English translator

     The type declaration syntax of C is somewhat bizarre and  can  be
troublesome  to  even experienced programmers.  The syntax of declara-
tion mirrors that of use.  In other words, variables are  defined  the
way  they would be used in an expression.  We give a loose description
of how to correctly "parse" a C declaration and then we present a com-
plete translator to describe, in English, what the declaration means.

     Kernighan and Ritchie [KeR88] give an  excellent  description  of
how to understand C declarations and they present a program to convert
from C to a word description.  To parse a declaration as a  Human,  we
follow a few simple rules.

(i)  Start parsing at the variable name.

(ii) Scan to the right.  For each [expr] or  ()  encountered  say  "n-
     element array of" or "function returning" respectively where n is
     the (optional) expression found inside  the  brackets.   Continue
     scanning until a right-parenthesis or a semicolon.

(iii)Now, scan left.  For each * say "pointer to" until you see a type
     name or a left-parenthesis.

(iv) Move to the next outer nesting level  if  one  exists  and  begin
     again  at  rule (ii).  If no more declaration symbols exist, look
     to the left and say  the  type  name  (ignoring  storage  classes
     here).

For example, let us parse




int *(*a[10])();



By (i), we begin at a.  Looking to the right in (ii), we see  brackets
and  so  we say "10-element array of."  The right-parenthesis makes us
jump to rule (iii) and scan left.  We see a * and  say  "pointer  to."



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The left-parenthesis finishes off (iii) and rule (iv) tells us to exit
this level of parenthesis (nesting) and start again at (ii).  Scanning
to  the  right  we see () and say "function returning."  The semicolon
forces us to (iii) where we see a * and say "pointer to."  (iv)  tells
us  to  say  "integer."  Packing all of the "sayings" together yields:
"10-element array of pointer to function returning pointer to integer"
or, in a flat tree representation,




( [10] ( * ( () ( * int ) ) ) )."



Our example parser will construct trees of a  similar  form  but  with
result in a little better English.

     To build a type tree  for  C  we  "unroll"  the  nesting  of  the
declaration so that it can be read left-to-right.  Our trees will have
the variable name at the root and the type as the leaf.  Each node  in
the  tree  will  be  a type-qualifier.  The type-qualifiers are one of
[expr], (), * and are linked together in a parent/child  relationship.
e.g. ( i ( * int ) ) means that i is a pointer to an integer.

     The translator uses simple character buffers  as  attributes  and
AST  node  data.   The  trees  are constructed at parse-time and later
traversed to print out the description.  A function to find the bottom
of  a  parent/child  list  is required to augment the normal tree con-
struction features of PCCTS.




#header <<
    #include "charbuf.h"
    #define AST_FIELDS  Attrib attr;
>>

<<
AST *root = NULL;

AST *zzmk_ast(node,attr)
AST *node;
Attrib attr;
{
    node->attr = attr;
    return node;
}

main() { ANTLR(start(&root), stdin); }






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AST *bottom(t)
AST *t;
{
    if ( t==NULL ) return NULL;
    if ( t->down != NULL ) return bottom(t->down);
    return t;
}

english(tree)
AST *tree;
{
    printf("%s is", tree->attr.text);
    engl(tree->down, 0);
}






engl(tree, plural)
AST *tree;
int plural;
{
    if ( tree == NULL ) return;
    if ( strcmp(tree->attr.text, "*") == 0 )
        printf(plural?" pointers to":" a pointer to");
    else if ( strcmp(tree->attr.text, "nodim") == 0 ) {
        printf(plural?" arrays of":" an array of");
        plural = 1;
    }
    else if ( strcmp(tree->attr.text, "int") == 0 )
        printf(plural?" integers\n":" an integer\n");
    else if ( strcmp(tree->attr.text, "ret") == 0 )
        printf(plural?" functions returning": " a function returning");
    else {
        if ( plural ) printf(" %s-element arrays of", tree->attr.text);
        else printf(" a %s-element array of", tree->attr.text);
        plural = 1;
    }
    engl(zzchild(tree), plural);
    engl(zzsibling(tree), plural);
}
>>









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#token "[\ \t\n]+"    <<zzskip();>>

start!  :   ( d <<english(#1); zzfree_ast(#1);>> )*
        ;

d!      :   <<AST *word;>>
            "int" d1[#[$1]] > [word] ";"        <<#0 = #(word, #2);>>
        ;

d1![AST *type] > [AST *word]
        :   "\*" d1[#(#[$1], $type)] > [$word]  <<#0 = #2;>>
        |   d2[$type] > [$word]                 <<#0 = #1;>>
        ;

d2![AST *type] > [AST *word]
        :   WORD d3[$type]                      <<$word = #[$1]; #0 = #2;>>
        |   "\(" d1[NULL] > [$word] "\)" d3[$type]
            <<#( bottom(#2), #4 ); #0 = (#2==NULL)? #4 : #2;>>
        ;

d3![AST *type]
        :   "\[" NUM "\]" d3[type]  <<#0 = #( #[$2], #4 );>>
        |   "\[" "\]"     d3[type]  <<#0 = #( #[$[WORD,"nodim"]], #3 );>>
        |   "\(" "\)"               <<#0 = #( #[$[WORD,"ret"]], type );>>
        |                           <<#0 = type;>>
        ;

#token NUM "[0-9]+"
#token WORD "[a-z]+"



The rules of this grammar perform the following functions

startMatch multiple declarations translating each one to  English  and
     freeing each tree.

d    Only integers are recognized for simplicity.  Declarations  begin
     with  "int"  and  are  terminated  by  a  ";".  Rule d1 returns a
     pointer to the AST  containing  the  symbol  name  found  in  the
     declaration  (which  has not yet been added to the tree).  Rule d
     returns the declaration found in rule d1 with the symbol name  as
     the  new root.  The type node is always the leaf and is passed to
     rule d1 which builds everything on top of the type node.

d1   The * is the lowest priority symbol in a declaration and hence we
     "look"  to  the  right  first.   The * is appended to whatever is
     found to the right.  This is accomplished by passing  the  *  and
     the  currently built tree to rule d2.  Since we are scanning from
     the left, but must translate as if starting from the most  deeply



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     nested  structure,  we must keep adding type-qualifiers on top of
     the root.  The current tree  is  always  passed  down.   Rule  d1
     returns a pointer to the AST node containing the variable name.

d2   Recognize a variable name followed by an array/function  descrip-
     tor  or recognize a parenthesized declarator.  Rule d2 creates an
     AST node for the variable name and returns  it.   The  tree  con-
     structed  by  rule  d3  is  also returned.  We need to attach the
     array/function descriptor to  the  bottom  of  the  parenthesized
     declarator which could be arbitrarily large.  For this reason, we
     use the bottom() function to  find  the  end  of  the  declarator
     returned by the reference to d1.

d3   Match an array or function descriptor.  Note that two  tokens  of
     look-ahead  are  required  to decide between alternatives one and
     two since both begin with a left-bracket.  Tail-recursion is used
     to  get  a  sequence  of [] or () descriptors.  Array descriptors
     like [34] are converted to tree nodes containing just the  number
     of  elements.   If no size is present, "nodim" is substituted for
     the number in the AST node.  If nothing is seen by  rule  d3,  it
     returns  the  type that was passed in since nothing was appended.
     Function descriptors form type-qualifiers labeled "ret".

It is interesting to note that the grammar actions  required  to  con-
struct the type trees were small and mostly assignments.  The explicit
tree constructors allow complicated trees to be built without a  great
deal of C code.

     The translator can be made using the following makefile.




# Makefile for C -> English translator
CFLAGS= -I../h
AFLAGS= -gt -k 2
GRM=decl
SRC=scan.c $(GRM).c err.c
OBJ=scan.o $(GRM).o err.o

test: $(OBJ) $(SRC)
    cc -o $(GRM) $(OBJ)

$(GRM).c parser.dlg : $(GRM).g
    antlr $(AFLAGS) $(GRM).g

scan.c : parser.dlg
    dlg -C2 parser.dlg scan.c



Our translator knows how and when to make things  plural  so  it  gen-
erates correct English.  For example,




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int *(*i[5])();



yields




i is a 5-element array of pointers to functions returning pointers to integers



4.2.5.  Tree manipulation routines

     PCCTS generates code that calls the following set of tree manipu-
lation  routines to create AST's.  The user may modify the routines to
suit their own purposes.  The routines and AST  node  definitions  are
located  in  ast.c  and  ast.h  respectively  and  reside in the PCCTS
include directory.  They are automatically included when the ANTLR -gt
command-line  option  is specified.  Routines prefixed with underscore
are not normally called by the user.

void _link(_root, _sibling, _tail)
     Called to ensure tree manipulation variables for current rule are
     valid after a rule reference.

AST *_astnew()
     Create a new AST node and return it.

void _child(_root, _sibling, _tail)
     Add a leaf node to the current AST.  Creates an AST node, applies
     the  default  node  transformation  (zzcr_ast)  if it exists, and
     appends the node to the current sibling list.  After  this  func-
     tion, #i variables are available for user actions.

void _subroot(_root, _sibling, _tail)
     Perform the same operations as  _child(),  but  make  the  newly-
     created  node  the  root for the current sibling list.  If a root
     node exists, make the newly-created node the root of the  current
     root.

void zzpre_ast(tree, apply, before, after)
     Perform a preorder traversal of tree applying apply to each node.
     Apply  function  before  before the start of each new subtree and
     function after after you complete each subtree.

     A common use of this function is to print out a tree.  For  exam-
     ple,  if  AST  nodes had a field called token, the tree of tokens
     could be printed by defining the following



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     void show(tree)
     AST *tree;
     {
         if ( tree == NULL ) return;
         printf(" %s", zztokens[tree->token]);
     }

     void before() { printf(" ("); }
     void after()  { printf(" )"); }



     and then calling zzpre_ast() as




     zzpre_ast(some_tree, show, before, after);



AST *zzdup_ast(tree)
     Return a duplicate of the tree passed in.

void zzfree_ast(tree)
     Free the AST pointed to by tree applying  zzd_ast  to  each  node
     before freeing if it is defined.

zzrm_ast
     This macro is used to free  the  subtree  for  the  current  rule
     (using  zzfree_ast())  and  remove  all  references to it.  PCCTS
     maintains local pointers to the current sibling list etc... which
     must  be  NULL'ed  in  order to begin a new subtree.  Translators
     that perform an operation on a list of items using ()* or ()+ can
     add an action to free and remove references to the AST associated
     with the different items upon each iteration of  the  loop.  e.g.
     (item <<zzrm_ast;>>)+.

zzchild(tree)
     Return the first child of the node pointed to by  tree.   Returns
     NULL if tree is NULL.

zzsibling(tree)
     Return the immediate sibling of the  node  pointed  to  by  tree.
     Returns NULL if tree is NULL.


The parameters tree, _root, _sibling and _tail are defined as





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AST *tree, **_root, **_sibling, **_tail;



A useful modification to _astnew() would be to use  custom  allocation
of  AST  nodes.   Since  they  are all the same size, it could be done
quickly and efficiently.

4.2.6.  AST references

     References to AST objects come in three basic forms.

#i   This attribute refers to the tree constructed for  the  ith  rule
     element   within  the  current  alternative.   #i  variables  are
     scoped/numbered just like $i variables and their association dis-
     solves  after  leaving the current attribute scope.  #i is unique
     until the current block is exited or another iteration of a (  )*
     or a ( )+ loop has begun.

     #0 is special and always refers to the root of the subtree  asso-
     ciated  with  the  rule in which it was referenced.  #0 is scoped
     like $$, not like $0; there is only one #0 for the  entire  rule.
     If  #0  is  ever  set  to  NULL,  the  current subtree disappears
     (without freeing the nodes).  Normally, #0 is only set  when  the
     automatic  AST  tree  creation  is turned off with a !  after the
     rule name in a definition.

     Since subrules do not have their own #0 values.  The #i value  of
     a  subrule  is  undefined.   However,  for  compatibility with $i
     numbering, subrules are counted as though they were  assigned  #i
     values:

     An example #-variable number is as follows.




     a   :   B
             ( C D /* #1 is C, #2 is D */ )*
             E
             /* #1 is B, #2 does not exist, #3 is E */
         ;



     When the automatic tree construction is turned off  for  a  rule,
     #-variables  for  terminals  are  undefined  since  nodes are not
     created for them.  #-variables always exist for  rule  references
     since  the  referenced  rule  may construct a tree (implicitly or
     explicitly).



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#[args]
     This form constructs an AST node and returns a pointer to it  (of
     type  AST *).   The  arguments and the newly-constructed node are
     passed to the zzmk_ast() function defined by the user.

#(root, child , child , ..., child )
     This for_ repres_nts a tree d_scriptor from a  set  of  AST  node
     pointers.  It is translated to a function call that links all the
     child nodes together as siblings, with root as their  parent.   A
     pointer  to the root is returned.  If the root is NULL, a pointer
     to the sibling list is returned.  #( NULL ) and #()  both  return
     NULL.    #( nodeptr )   yields  nodeptr.   All  child'ren  become
     siblings of each other and any siblings  of  the  child'ren  that
     existed previously become siblings also.  For example,




     #( NULL, #( NULL, #[a], #[b]), #[c] )



     results in a, b and c all being siblings.

4.2.7.  Invoking parsers that construct trees

     PCCTS parsers pass an address of a root pointer  to  other  rules
while  constructing  AST's.   This  root  pointer  is always the first
parameter and will point to the subtree built for that rule upon  rule
completion.   Any  parameters  defined  for a rule are not affected by
this additional rule argument.  All root pointers must be set to  NULL
initially.   Normally,  PCCTS  generates  code  to  handle all pointer
parameter passing and tree manipulations.  However, the starting  rule
(i.e.  the  one called using the ANTLR macro) may try to reference the
root pointer it presumes was passed in.  Therefore, the address  of  a
NULL-initialized root pointer must be manually passed in.  e.g.




AST *root = NULL;

main()
{
        ANTLR(start(&root), stdin);
}

start : stuff ;



This root parameter will be not be defined in rule start  if  the  -gt
command-line option is not used.




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     Note that if main() is located in a file  other  than  a  grammar
file, the user must explicitly include ast.h.

4.2.8.  Error recovery and AST's

     When a syntax error is discovered by an  ANTLR-generated  parser,
no  further additions will be made to the subtree of the current rule.
Additions will resume after "successful" error recovery.  The  AST  is
always  left  in  a  stable state (i.e. a valid child-sibling tree) so
that user actions may examine  and/or  modify  the  tree.   This  also
ensures that syntax errors will not result in ill-formed trees.

5.  Error detection and repair

     Reasonable error recovery is a notoriously difficult  task  which
is  handled  very poorly, or not at all, by most parser-generator sys-
tems.  In part, this may be due to the fact  that  most  systems  con-
struct  LR  parsers,  and these are theoretically less able to recover
from errors than LL parsers [FiL88].  It can also be justified on  the
basis  that  a  parser can be used to quickly find the first error, so
that an interactive user can repair the error  and  recompile  without
having  to read through a multitude of additional error messages which
might represent the parser's confusion rather than actual errors.

     In contrast, PCCTS attempts to provide a simple, automatic, error
reporting  and recovery mechanism.  Currently, ANTLR-generated parsers
recover from syntax errors by consuming tokens until a  token  in  the
FOLLOW  set  of X is discovered where X is the rule in which the error
was discovered.  Errors are reported in terms of  the  set  of  tokens
which could legally have appeared at that point.

     A syntax error occurs when a PCCTS parser discovers  a  token  on
the  input stream that cannot be matched to any currently recognizable
rule element.  Because PCCTS performs grammar analysis on  the  user's
grammar  description,  it  is aware of all possible tokens that can be
recognized at a given instant.  Sets  representing  these  tokens  are
passed  to  an  error  reporting  function  when  a  syntax  error  is
discovered.  Optionally, a fail-action can be executed.

     [Wir76] provides a simple mechanism for  recovering  from  syntax
errors in LL(1) parsers by consuming tokens until the current token is
found to be a member  of  a  "stopping  set."  This  stopping  set  is
comprised of the FOLLOW set for that rule and any user-defined marking
("resynch") tokens that are never to be skipped (e.g.  BEGIN).   PCCTS
currently  employs  a simple variant of the [Wir76] mechanism.  When a
syntax error occurs in any production of rule X, the parser will  con-
sume input until the current token is a member of the stopping set for
X.

     The syntax error recovery mechanism employed by  PCCTS  does  not
effect  parser recognition speed unless an error is discovered.  PCCTS
error recovery is attractive because it is completely  automatic,  but
it tends to delete groups of tokens which may lead to erroneous resyn-
chronizations.  This "glutton" scheme could be refined by allowing the



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user  to  specify  a  set  of resynch tokens to augment the FOLLOW set
[Wir76].  These resynch tokens would be determined by experience.

     Sophisticated error recovery is possible using k tokens of  look-
ahead.   Future  versions  of PCCTS might employ this large look-ahead
for intelligent error  recovery.   Hence,  it  can  be  expected  that
automatic  error  handling  will  improve  without  requiring users to
change the input to PCCTS.

5.1.  Modifying grammars to recognize common syntax errors

     The user may modify a given  grammar  to  recognize  common,  but
erroneous sentences.  For example, if rule expr8 below were part of an
expression recognizer for a programming language,




expr8   :    VAR
        |    INT
        |    FUNC "\(" elist "\)"
        ;



it could be modified to print an error message whenever  an  undefined
variable was seen.  In other words,




expr8   :    VAR
        |    INT
        |    FUNC "\(" elist "\)"
        |    WORD <<error("Undefined variable: %s", $1);>>
        ;



Without this additional production, the parser would  print  something
like (assuming test was the undefined variable found):




syntax error at "test" missing { VAR INT FUNC }



The extra production would allow a more informative error  message  to
be printed, such as:






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Undefined variable: "test"



5.2.  Default error reporting function

     The default error reporting function, zzsyn(), is defined as fol-
lows.




void
zzsyn(char *text,     /* text of current token */
      int tok,        /* current token */
      char *egroup,   /* label attached to rule with error if present */
      unsigned *eset, /* etok==0 -> >1 token missing; set is eset */
      int etok)       /* etok>0 -> 1 token missing; token is etok */
{
    fprintf(stderr, "syntax error at \"%s\"", text);
    fprintf(stderr, " missing ");
    if ( !etok ) zzedecode(eset);
    else fprintf(stderr, "%s", zztokens[etok]);
    if ( strlen(egroup) > 0 ) fprintf(stderr, " in %s", egroup);
    fprintf(stderr, "\n");
}



     A list of the regular expression or label  associated  with  each
token  value  is  stored  in  the  char  *zztokens[]  array  in err.c.
zzedecode() is a predefined function that decodes the  set  of  tokens
stored in the bit-set eset.

     zzsyn() can be modified according to the user's needs.  For exam-
ple,  it  can  be  modified  to  print  out  the  file and line number
(zzline).

5.3.  Error groups

     The user may attach a string to a non-terminal that is passed  on
to  the  error  reporting  macro/function  zzsyn()  by placing it just
before the : in a rule definition. e.g.




declarator "declaration or definition" : ... ;





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Although zzsyn() can be redefined  by  the  user,  the  default  error
reporting  facility appends the specified string to the error message.
More than one rule may share the same string.  This mechanism can gen-
erate  decent error messages.  For example, one could specify that all
rules dealing with expressions (e.g. factor, term, conditional) are to
be  labeled  as  "expression".   The  default zzsyn() would then yield
something like:




syntax error at "NUM" missing { "\+" "\*" } in expression



as opposed to




syntax error at "NUM" missing { "\+" "\*" }



Another example might be that all rules used to define variables, such
as      rule      declarator      above,     should     be     labeled
"declaration or definition".

5.4.  Error token classes

     The default syntax error reporting facility generates a  list  of
tokens  that could be possibility matched when the erroneous token was
encountered.  Often, this list is large and means little to  the  user
for  anything  but  small grammars.  For example, an expression recog-
nizer might generate  the  following  error  message  for  an  invalid
expression, "a . b":




syntax error at "." missing { "\+" "\-" "\*" "\/" "\&" "\|" "\<" "\>" "\=" ";" }



A better error message would be




syntax error at "." missing { operator ";" }



This modification can be accomplished by defining the error class:



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#errclass "operator" { "\+" "\-" "\*" "\/" "\&" "\|" "\<" "\>" "\=" }



5.4.1.  Error class definitions

     The general syntax for #errclass is as follows:




#errclass label { e  e  ...  e  }
                   1  2       n


where label is either a quoted string or  a  label  (capitalized  just
like token labels).  The quoted string must not conflict with any rule
name or regular expression.  Groups of expressions  will  be  replaced
with  this  string and it must not appear to be a simple token.  Simi-
larly, an error class label may not share the same name as  a  labeled
token.   The error class elements, e , can be a labeled token, a regu-
lar expression or a non-terminal.  T_kens (labeled or regular  expres-
sions)  referenced  within  an  error  class must at some point in the
grammar be referenced in a rule or  explicitly  defined  with  #token.
The  definition need not appear before the #errclass definition.  If a
non-terminal is referenced, the FIRST set (set of all tokens that  can
be  recognized  first  upon  entering a rule) for that rule is instan-
tiated into the error class.  The -ge command-line option can be  used
to  have  PCCTS  generate  an error class for each non-terminal of the
form:




#errclass Rule { rule }



which implies that each non-terminal will have an error class composed
of  the  first set for that rule.  The error class name is the same as
the non-terminal except that the first character is converted to upper
case.

     Error class names may also be used as error class  elements  (e )
since  error class names are treated somewhat like tokens.  This capa-
bility allows error class hierarchies.  For example,







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#errclass Fruit { CHERRY APPLE }
#errclass Meat { COW PIG }
#errclass "stuff you can eat" { Fruit Meat }

yum :  (CHERRY | APPLE) PIE
    |  (COW | PIG) FARM
    |  THE (CHERRY | APPLE) TREE
    ;



Different error messages will result depending upon where in rule a  a
syntax error is detected.  If the input were




THE PIG TREE



the following error message would result:




syntax error at "PIG" missing { Fruit }



However, if the input were




FARM COW



the decent error message




syntax error at "FARM" missing { "stuff you can eat" THE }



would result.  Note that without  the  error  class  definitions,  the
error message would have been:



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syntax error at "FARM" missing { CHERRY APPLE COW PIG THE }



which conveys the same information, but at a much lower level.

5.4.2.  Error class utilization

     PCCTS attempts to construct sets of tokens for error  reporting--
error  sets.  The sets are created wherever a parsing decision will be
made in the generated parser.  At every point in the  parsing  process
there  exists  a  set  of currently recognizable/acceptable terminals.
This set can be decoded  and  printed  out  when  a  syntax  error  is
detected  -  when  the  current  token  is not currently recognizable.
PCCTS attempts to replace subsets of all error sets with error classes
defined  by  the  user.   For example, rule a below contains a subrule
with more than one alternative which implies that a  parsing  decision
will be required at run-time to determine which alternative to choose.




a   :  (Happy | Sad | Funny | Carefree) Person ;



If, upon entering rule a, the current token is not  one  of  the  four
terminals found in the alternatives, a syntax error will have occurred
and the following message  would  be  generated  (if  "huh"  were  the
current token):




syntax error at "huh" missing { Happy Sad Funny Carefree }



Let us define an error class called Adjective that groups  those  same
four tokens together.




#errclass Adjective { Happy Sad Funny Carefree }



Now, the error message would be:




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syntax error at "huh" missing { Adjective }



     PCCTS repeatedly trys to replace subsets of the error  set  until
no more substitutions can be made.  At each replacement iteration, the
largest error class that is completely contained within the error  set
is  substituted  for  that group of tokens.  One replacement iteration
may perform some substitution that makes another, previously inviable,
substitution  possible.  This allows the hierarchy mechanism described
above in the error class description section.  The sequence of substi-
tutions for the yum example would be:




[i]     { CHERRY APPLE COW PIG THE }
[ii]    { Fruit COW PIG THE }
[iii]   { Fruit Meat THE }
[iv]    { "stuff you can eat" THE }



     The error class mechanism leads to smaller error sets and can  be
used to provide more informative error messages.

6.  Things you should know about

     This section is a collection of important  things  that  did  not
properly belong in any other section.

6.1.  Available program symbols

     This section describes all symbols visible to the user  that  may
be of interest.

6.1.1.  Macros, functions, #define's
















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ZZCOL                 /* define so that DLG tracks column # of tokens */
ZZLEXBUFSIZE          /* if not set, default size of lexical bufs */
ZZA_STACKSIZE         /* if not set, default size of attrib stack */
ZZAST_STACKSIZE       /* if not set, default size of AST stack */
zzTRACE(rule)         /* macro called at start of rule when -gd set */
LL_K                  /* == max # tokens of look-ahead used in parser */
ANTLR(start,stream)   /* ANTLR startup macro; get input from stream */
ANTLRf(start,funcPtr) /* ANTLR startup macro; get input from func */
zzcr_attr()           /* create attribute from token, text on input */
zzd_attr()            /* call zzd_attr(&($i)) for each attrib created */
zzcr_ast()            /* how to create an AST node from attribute */
zzmk_ast()            /* how to create an AST node (user-defined) */
zzd_ast()             /* how to destroy an AST node */
LA(i)                 /* ith token of look-ahead */
LATEXT(i)             /* text for ith token of look-ahead */
zzlextext             /* buffer holding text of current token */
zzsyn()               /* error reporting macro */
zzpre_ast(tree, func1, func2, func3) /* see section 4.2.5 */
zzfree_ast(tree)      /* see section 4.2.5 */
zzdup_ast(tree)       /* see section 4.2.5 */
zzedecode(unsigned *error_set); /* decode a bit-set */
zzskip()              /* Tell DLG to skip this token */
zzmore()              /* Tell DLG to try for more chars */
zzmode(mode)          /* switch DLG to another lex mode */
zzadvance()           /* Get next char allow only valid chars */
zzrdstream(s)         /* Reset lex_line, use stream s for input */
zzrdfunc(f)           /* Reset lex_line, call function f to read input */
zzreplchar(c)         /* replace current lex buffer with c */
zzreplstr(s)          /* replace current lex buffer with s */



6.1.2.  Global variables




char    *zztokens[],  /* zztokens[t] is rexpr or label for token t */
        *zzbegexpr,   /* start of text for currently recognized expr */
        *zzendexpr;   /* end of text for currently recognized expr */
int     zzline,       /* set by user to current line # */
        zzbegcol,     /* column # of 1st char in token */
        zzendcol,     /* column # of last char in token */
        zzchar;       /* current character of look-ahead */
void    (*zzerr)();   /* ptr to func to exec upon lexical error */



One of the most common actions found among  PCCTS  descriptions  is  a
statement similar to



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#token "\n"    << zzline++; >>    /* Move to next line */



6.2.  ANSI versus K&R

     K&R,  actually  Kernighan  and  Ritchie,   "The   C   Programming
Language," Prentice-Hall, 1978, was effectively the standard for the C
language until the ANSI X3-J11 committee put  forth  a  definition  of
ANSI  C  [ANS90].  Unfortunately, ANSI C is not compatible with K&R C,
yet both dialects are in common use.  For this reason, PCCTS  supports
generation of either ANSI C or K&R C.

     By default, PCCTS generates K&R C code with parameterless  extern
declarations  automatically  placed in tokens.h for each parsing func-
tion that has a return value.  If the -ga command-line option is  used
(on  both  ANTLR  and DLG), PCCTS generates ANSI C compatible code and
function prototype declarations; all  parsing  functions  with  return
values  or parameter definitions have appropriate prototypes placed in
tokens.h.

     According to the ANSI  C  standard,  a  compliant  compiler  must
define  the macro name __STDC__, which would not be defined by a K&R C
compiler.  Hence, code can be written to work correctly with both ANSI
C  and  K&R  C  by  using #ifdef to test if __STDC__ has been defined.
Although the output of PCCTS would  have  been  excessively  large  if
#ifdef had been used to make the code be acceptable to both ANSI C and
K&R C compilers, #include files and other support code  may  test  for
the macro __STDC__.

6.3.  Bugs

     Occasionally, PCCTS will find a grammar that  it  cannot  analyze
and you will receive an error similar to the following.




file.c, line 43: out of memory while analyzing alts 2 and 5 of (..)+



This is due to LL(k) grammar analysis requiring exponential  space  in
some  cases.   Normally,  this  problem only will occur with k > 2 for
large, ambiguous, grammars.  A technique which avoids  the  worst-case
exponential  space  requirement  is  being  considered  for  a  future
release.

     Although not technically  a  "bug,"  the  differences  between  B
release  PCCTS  and  version  1.00  will  cause  numerous errors to be



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reported if old grammars are submitted to the  new  system.   Most  of
these  incompatibilities  require only minor changes; see section 7.1.
This was expected - why do you think we called it B?

     The code generated using the -ga option has not been  tested  for
compliance with the ANSI C standard.

     The source code for ANTLR itself is not ANSI compliant,  although
it is fairly close.

     Error messages reporting ambiguities involving nullable  subrules
(i.e.,  {}  or  ()*)  sometime  blame  the ambiguity on an alternative
rather than the nullable construct.

     The names of PCCTS variables and/or functions are not necessarily
consistent,  mnemonic  or  convenient.   PCCTS symbols are, therefore,
subject to change.

     ANTLR will not compile on any system that does not have _iobuf as
the  standard  FILE * structure name.  This is because struct _iobuf *
is used in a header file  instead  of  FILE *.   The  header  file  is
automatically  generated  via  proto--the  C  example distributed with
PCCTS.  You can circumvent this problem by changing the declaration of
struct _iobuf * in proto.h to FILE *.

     ANTLR normally checks to see that you do not reference an  attri-
bute  (parameter, return value, normal attribute) that is not defined.
However, if you use a $name where name  is  a  substring  of  a  valid
parameter or return value, it thinks that it is ok.

     Invoking an ANTLR parser  multiple  times  or  invoking  multiple
parsers does not work very well; tokens tend to be lost.

7.  History

     PCCTS Version 1.00 was written  using  B  release  PCCTS -  1.0B.
1.0B  was,  in  turn,  written in alpha release PCCTS, 1.0A, which was
written in YUCC (a graduate class project gone wild).  YUCC was  writ-
ten  in  PG;  both  of  which  were simple BNF-style recursive descent
parser generators.  PG was written in RD [JuD84].

7.1.  Differences from B release PCCTS

     PCCTS Version 1.00 is  significantly  different  from  B  release
PCCTS.  However, Version 1.00 is mostly a superset - most old grammars
require only minor changes for version 1.00.  This section  delineates
all of the changes and a few possible migration paths.

o    #attrib is now called #header to reflect the more general use  of
     the construct in version 1.00.

o    The ANTLR initiation macro now requires that  the  starting  rule
     have  ()  appended  just  as you would call the function by hand.
     For example, ANTLR(start(), stdin).



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o    A number of internal functions and variables have been renamed so
     that  conflicts with user-defined names are less likely.  All the
     new names begin with the prefix zz.  For example:

     o    aCreate() is now zzcr_attr().

     o    cur_char is now called zzchar, but the user should not  need
          to reference it.

     o    LexSkip and LexMore are now zzskip and zzmore.

o    Token is now called LA(1) (first token of look-ahead).  LA(i)  is
     the ith token.

o    LexText is now LATEXT(1) (text for first  token  of  look-ahead).
     LATEXT(i) is the text for the ith token.

o    ANTLRi no longer exists.

o    Rules no longer  automatically  define  an  attribute  parameter.
     Also,  parameters  of the form {...} (i.e. rule[{...}]) cannot be
     used.  Basically, parameter passing to a rule is exactly like  in
     a  programming  language.  All parameters must be defined and can
     be any valid type.  Also, return values may be defined for  rules
     rather  than  using old-style upward attributes.  Rules may simu-
     late the old-style $0 inheritance via




     rule[Attrib inh] : <<$0 = inh;>> ... ;



o    A new file called mode.h is created by DLG and is  included  into
     your  ANTLR parser.  This implies that DLG must be run before you
     can compile the C files created by ANTLR.

o    New command-line  options  have  appeared,  old  ones  have  been
     changed and/or disappeared.  To be precise,


     -T   is now -gd.

     -z   is gone.

     -n   is now -gx.

     -l   is now -fl.

     -c   is now -gc.

     -I   is gone.




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PCCTS 1.00


     -s   is gone.

     -fi  is gone.

     -fo  is gone.

     -R   is now -cr.

     -e   is gone.

     -a   is gone.

     -w   is now one of -e1, -e2, -e3.

     -d   is gone.

     -E   is gone since the user can redefine zzsyn().

o    zzreplchar() and zzreplstr() should be used instead of  modifying
     the lexical buffer manually.

o    A pointer to a function called zzerr is set to a function to call
     upon lexical error (invalid token etc...).

7.2.  Future directions

     Neither we nor Purdue University guarantee that  PCCTS  works  or
accept  liability  if it does not do what you want it to.  However, we
do try to maintain and improve the system.  So, we value user feedback
that might help us improve PCCTS.

     Within Purdue University's School of Electrical  Engineering,  we
are  constantly updating PCCTS.  The 1.00 release does not include all
the latest goodies - it contains only those features whose implementa-
tion  we  believe  to  be useful, correct, and reasonably stable.  The
following is a partial  list  of  improvements  currently  being  con-
sidered:

Parser construction
     Currently, ANTLR parsers use a sequence of if statements to  find
     the  correct  alternative  to match.  This is inefficient if only
     one token of look-ahead is required to uniquely  determine  which
     alternative  to  choose.   Depending  on the C compiler, a switch
     statement would generate much faster code.

     Attribute and AST variables are maintained on software stacks  in
     1.00.  Grammar analysis could easily create a collection of local
     hardware-stack-based variables to use in place  of  the  software
     stack.   This would eliminate the need to specify an attribute or
     AST stack size and produce faster code.

Inline rules
     For the most part, subrules are like macro-expansions  of  rules.
     Rather  than referencing a rule, the user simply instantiates the



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PCCTS 1.00


     rule in place of  the  rule  reference.   Grammatically  the  two
     methods  are  the  same,  but  they differ in two important ways.
     First, subrules cannot employ the sophisticated parameter passing
     mechanism  available  to rules.  Second, subrules are much faster
     than rule references since subrules avoid the function call over-
     head.   A  future  version of PCCTS might introduce inline rules.
     Inline rules would be defined as before (with the addition of the
     inline  keyword) but would be instantiated into rules that refer-
     ence them.  This would cut down on grammar clutter by breaking up
     long rules while maintaining the speed advantage of subrules.

Abstract-syntax-trees
     Through experience with PCCTS AST's, a new group of tree  manipu-
     lation  routines  should  appear.   Some  of them could relate to
     code-generation.

Example grammars
     More and more grammars are being built with PCCTS.  Some of  them
     might be made available through future PCCTS releases and through
     users' network postings.

Recognition
     Currently, PCCTS parsers cannot recognize as  large  a  class  of
     languages  as  bottom-up parsers.  Research is underway to create
     hybrid parsers that would retain top-down's  programmer-interface
     features while gaining bottom-up's recognition strength.

Code generation
     Research continues at Purdue toward  a  code-generator  generator
     for parallel machines (PIG).

     A simple uni-processor code-generator that has  been  in  use  at
     Purdue may be made available in the next release of PCCTS.

$tokenPCCTS only  recognizes  $i,  $i.j,  $rule  variables  presently.
     Future  versions might allow $token variables which will refer to
     attributes for tokens by the name of the token not  the  position
     number.

7.3.  Acknowledgements

     Thanks is due to the users of B release PCCTS for their excellent
suggestions.  In particular, Mark Nichols (PhD candidate in Electrical
Engineering at Purdue) discovered many of the initial quirks and bugs.
We acknowledge Dana Hoggatt (Micro Data Base Systems Inc) for his idea
of error grouping (strings attached to non-terminals) and his signifi-
cant  software  testing  efforts.   Thanks  is  due  Professor Matthew
O'Keefe and Peter Dahl (both at University  of  Minnesota)  for  their
review  of  the  user's  manual  and  their bug-finding escapades into
PCCTS.







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PCCTS 1.00


8.  References

[ANS90]
     American National Standard for Information Systems,  "Programming
     Language C," Document X3J11/90-013, February 1990.

[AhU79]
     A.V. Aho, J.D. Ullman, Principles of  Compiler  Design,  Addison-
     Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts, 1979.

[DoP90]
     H. Dobler and K. Pirklbauer, "Coco-2 A  New  Compiler  Compiler,"
     ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Vol. 25, No. 5, May 1990.

[Joh78]
     Stephen C. Johnson, "Yacc: Yet Another  Compiler-Compiler,"  Bell
     Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, 1978.

[JuD84]
     R. Juels, H. Dietz, S. Arbeeny, J. Patane,  E.  Tepe,  "Automatic
     Translation  Systems,"  Study Report, Center For Digital Systems,
     Department of Electrical Engineering and  Computer  Science,  The
     Polytechnic Institute of New York, New York, 1984.

[KeR88]
     Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis  M.  Ritchie,  "The  C  programming
     Language,"  Prentice  Hall  Inc.,  Englewood  Cliffs, New Jersey,
     1988.

[Les75]
     M. E. Lesk, "LEX--a Lexical Analyzer  Generator,"  CSTR  39  Bell
     Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, 1975.

[LeP81]
     Harry R. Lewis, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Elements of the Theory
     of  Computation,  Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jer-
     sey, 1981.

[Nau63]
     P. Naur (ed.), "Revised report on the algorithmic language  ALGOL
     60," Communications of the ACM 6:1, 1-17.

[PaD90]
     Terence  Parr,  Henry  Dietz,  Will  Cohen,   "Purdue   Compiler-
     Construction  Tool  Set," Technical Report TR-EE 90-14, School Of
     Electrical Engineering, Purdue University,  West  Lafayette,  IN,
     February 1990.

[Par90]
     Terence Parr, "The Analysis of Extended BNF Grammars and the Con-
     struction of LL(1) Parsers," Technical Report TR-EE 90-30, School
     Of Electrical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN,
     May 1990.




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PCCTS 1.00


[PuC89]
     James J. Purtilo and John R. Callahan, "Parse-Tree  Annotations",
     Communications of the ACM, Vol. 32, No. 12, December 1989.

[Str87]
     Bjarne Stroustrup, "The C++ Programming Language," Addison-Wesley
     Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts, 1987.

[Wir76]
     Niklaus Wirth, Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs,  Prentice
     Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1976.

Notes:[LeP81] credits P. Naur [Nau63] with Backus-Naur Form (BNF)  and
     is  a reasonable text on language theory.  [AhU79] gave more com-
     plete references to Johnson's YACC and Lesk's LEX - i.e. the CSTR
     numbers from Bell Laboratories.











































PCCTS 1.00





                          Table of Contents




1. Introduction .................................................    1

         1.1. PCCTS programming interface .......................    2

         1.2. PCCTS information flow ............................    3

         1.3. PCCTS file(s) format ..............................    3

         1.4. Makefile template .................................    5

         1.5. PCCTS component command-line options ..............    6

         1.6. Introductory example ..............................   10

2. Lexical analysis and token definition ........................   13

         2.1. Token Labeling and token actions ..................   13

         2.2. Lexical actions via #lexaction ....................   16

         2.3. Multiple lexical classes ..........................   16

                  2.3.1. Multiple grammars, multiple lexical
analyzers .......................................................   17

                  2.3.2. Single grammar, multiple lexical
analyzers .......................................................   18

         2.4. Handling end of input .............................   18

         2.5. Token order and lexical ambiguities ...............   19

         2.6. Quoted tokens .....................................   19

         2.7. Interactive lexical analyzers .....................   21

         2.8. DLG lexical input .................................   21

         2.9. Tracking pattern position .........................   22

3. Syntactic analysis ...........................................   22

         3.1. PCCTS rule definitions ............................   23

                  3.1.1. Subrules ...............................   24






PCCTS 1.00


                  3.1.2. Rule communication .....................   25

                  3.1.3. Miscellaneous notes ....................   27

                  3.1.4. LL(k) parsing ..........................   28

         3.2. Grammar ambiguities ...............................   28

         3.3. Look-ahead size ...................................   30

         3.4. ANTLR parser construction .........................   30

                  3.4.1. Efficiency .............................   31

                  3.4.2. Debugging parsers ......................   32

         3.5. PCCTS parser template .............................   32

         3.6. Grammatical actions ...............................   34

                  3.6.1. Init Actions ...........................   34

                  3.6.2. Fail actions ...........................   35

                  3.6.3. Actions appearing outside of rules .....   36

4. Attribute handling ...........................................   37

         4.1. General attribute handling ........................   37

                  4.1.1. Attribute creation .....................   38

                  4.1.2. Attribute destruction ..................   40

                  4.1.3. Standard attribute definitions .........   41

                  4.1.4. Attribute references ...................   42

                           4.1.4.1. $i references ...............   43

                           4.1.4.2. $i.j references .............   44

                           4.1.4.3. $label references ...........   45

                  4.1.5. $[token, text] attribute constructor

                  4.1.6. Inheritance ............................   47

                           4.1.6.1. $0 inheritance ..............   47

                           4.1.6.2. Generalized rule communi-
cation ..........................................................   48

                                    4.1.6.2.1. Downward-





PCCTS 1.00


inheritance .....................................................   48

                                    4.1.6.2.2. Upward-
inheritance .....................................................   50

         4.2. Abstract-syntax-tree construction and manipula-
tion ............................................................   50

                  4.2.1. AST node creation ......................   51

                  4.2.2. AST node destruction ...................   54

                  4.2.3. Automatic AST construction .............   55

                           4.2.3.1. Grammar annotation ..........   55

                           4.2.3.2. Operator precedence .........   57

                           4.2.3.3. Example .....................   58

                  4.2.4. Explicit AST construction ..............   61

                           4.2.4.1. Simple example ..............   62

                           4.2.4.2. C declaration to English
translator ......................................................   64

                  4.2.5. Tree manipulation routines .............   69

                  4.2.6. AST references .........................   71

                  4.2.7. Invoking parsers that construct trees

                  4.2.8. Error recovery and AST's ...............   73

5. Error detection and repair ...................................   73

         5.1. Modifying grammars to recognize common syntax
errors ..........................................................   74

         5.2. Default error reporting function ..................   75

         5.3. Error groups ......................................   75

         5.4. Error token classes ...............................   76

                  5.4.1. Error class definitions ................   77

                  5.4.2. Error class utilization ................   79

6. Things you should know about .................................   80

         6.1. Available program symbols .........................   80






PCCTS 1.00


                  6.1.1. Macros, functions, #define's ...........   80

                  6.1.2. Global variables .......................   81

         6.2. ANSI versus K&R ...................................   82

         6.3. Bugs ..............................................   82

7. History ......................................................   83

         7.1. Differences from B release PCCTS ..................   83

         7.2. Future directions .................................   85

         7.3. Acknowledgements ..................................   86

8. References ...................................................   87