Re: Interactive parsing with Bison

[Hans Aberg]

On 26 Jun 2006, at 07:37, Satya wrote:

> My concern is this - are users of bison ready to wade through y.tab.c
> file (or in case of bison the xyz.tab.c) ?
>
> The file is full of macros and unavoidable clutter; anyone who is
> willing to understand this file can happily squeeze it  through gdb
> and debug their grammars just with the additional help of the .output
> file.

The way I think of is that this information, or some information is  
put into the .debug file so that the GUI can use it.

> The commercial tools available today (there aren't many by the way)
> take an alternative route - they let you compose your grammar in a
> nice IDE and then point out all the conflicts, simulate a parse on a
> test input file even before the final parser code is generated.

A problem with this type of GUI is that they usually are centered  
around a limited set of commercial applications: it works well as  
long one stays within that limited scope, but one is left out in the  
cold if  one steps outside.

For example, the use of a "make" file gives full programming control,  
that the type of IDE you mention does not.

Another factor to keep in mind, is the time it takes to develop a GUI.

  Hans Aberg