Status of ayacc and aflex?

#1 08-20-2008, 10:35 PM

I have a need for a parser generator and a lexical analyzer generator
that produce Ada. I see that there is an ayacc and aflex project. The
main page for it appears to be here:

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~arcadia/Afle...lex-ayacc.html

However the download link on that page does not appear to work. It seems
like the host no longer exists. Most other references to ayacc point to
the same non-existent place. I was able to locate the source code for a
slightly older version of ayacc on the TenDRA site. I have not yet
located aflex at all.

Is this project completely dead and buried? Is there some other parser
generator that I should be looking at instead?

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to give...

Peter

#2 08-21-2008, 12:39 AM

On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:35:51 -0400 in article
<48acd484$0$24596$4d3efbfe@news.sover.net>, Peter C. Chapin wrote...

> http://www.ics.uci.edu/~arcadia/Afle...lex-ayacc.html
>
>However the download link on that page does not appear to work.

Try:

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~self/

There's a working link there.

--
-- Dave Bryan

NOTE: Due to unrelenting spam, I regret that I have been forced to post with
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#3 08-21-2008, 02:27 AM

On 21 Sie, 04:35, "Peter C. Chapin" <pcc482...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a need for a parser generator and a lexical analyzer generator
> that produce Ada
> (...)
I suggest that you should use tool from http://adagoop.martincarlisle.com
Marek

#4 08-21-2008, 04:36 AM

On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:35:51 -0400, Peter C. Chapin wrote:

> I have a need for a parser generator and a lexical analyzer generator
> that produce Ada.

I prefer table-driven approach to generators.

You might find a table-driven parser in simple components:

http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de/ada/com...tm#Parsers_etc

which I am use for the only complex stuff, expressions. In almost any
"normal" language the rest is just trivial, easily handled by a recursive
descent parser. (I never managed to understand what formal grammars are
good for... (:-))

--
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de

#5 08-21-2008, 05:56 AM

"Peter C. Chapin" <pcc482719@gmail.com> writes:

> I have a need for a parser generator and a lexical analyzer generator
> that produce Ada. I see that there is an ayacc and aflex project. The
> main page for it appears to be here:
>
> http://www.ics.uci.edu/~arcadia/Afle...lex-ayacc.html
>
> However the download link on that page does not appear to work. It seems
> like the host no longer exists. Most other references to ayacc point to
> the same non-existent place. I was able to locate the source code for a
> slightly older version of ayacc on the TenDRA site. I have not yet
> located aflex at all.
>
> Is this project completely dead and buried? Is there some other parser
> generator that I should be looking at instead?

Depending on what you are really doing, you can use ASIS.

Or use the parser from GNAT.

These don't "generate parsers", but they can be used to write programs
that generate Ada code.

--
-- Stephe

#6 08-21-2008, 06:34 AM

Stephen Leake wrote:

> Depending on what you are really doing, you can use ASIS.

Yes, I thought about using ASIS (which I have used before). However,
that ties my executable to a particular compiler version and would make
my program unusable with a compiler that does not support ASIS. These
are both significant disadvantages in my case it seems to me. Or do all
compilers support ASIS these days?

Peter

#7 08-21-2008, 06:35 AM

J. David Bryan wrote:

> Try:
>
> http://www.ics.uci.edu/~self/
>
> There's a working link there.

Cool! Thanks.

Peter

#8 08-21-2008, 06:36 AM

ficorax@gmail.com wrote:

> I suggest that you should use tool from http://adagoop.martincarlisle.com
> Marek

Thanks to you and Dmitry for suggesting some alternatives. I may look
into them as well.

Peter

#9 08-21-2008, 10:55 AM

If you still need ayacc & aflex, there is an improved version coming
with the GWenerator at http://sf.net/projects/gnavi/
Both tools compile "out of the box" with GNAT - and probably any Ada
95+ compiler.
Improvements are:
- added functions to track line & column of parsed code
- possibility of setting table sizes without changing the tools
themselves
- the mighty "Syntax Error" indicates line number
- lots of useless "with" or "use" removed in both ayacc & aflex
sources, and other details spotted by GNAT
HTH
Gautier

#10 08-21-2008, 07:00 PM

gautier_niouzes@hotmail.com wrote:

> If you still need ayacc & aflex, there is an improved version coming
> with the GWenerator at http://sf.net/projects/gnavi/
> Both tools compile "out of the box" with GNAT - and probably any Ada
> 95+ compiler.

Thanks. I'll take a look.

Peter

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