Re: Newbie Question re: Transforming a domain specific language.

[Matt Friedman]

I don't mind pedantry at all, in fact, it is appreciated, as was the
good-humour of your reply. It seems as though you think I'm headed
down the right road, so I'll start hacking, as you suggest.

Many thanks. 


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


-- 
Matt Friedman

"A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few
original ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering."
-- Freeman Dyson