Abstract
In this paper we present an approach to specifying operator precedence based on declarative disambiguation constructs and an implementation mechanism based on grammar rewriting. We identify a problem with existing generalized context-free parsing and disambiguation technology: generating a correct parser for a language such as OCaml using declarative precedence specification is not possible without resorting to some manual grammar transformation. Our approach provides a fully declarative solution to operator precedence specification for context-free grammars, is independent of any parsing technology, and is safe in that it guarantees that the language of the resulting grammar will be the same as the language of the specification grammar. We evaluate our new approach by specifying the precedence rules from the OCaml reference manual against the highly ambiguous reference grammar and validate the output of our generated parser.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Klint, P., Lämmel, R., Verhoef, C.: Toward an engineering discipline for grammarware. ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol. 14(3), 331–380 (2005)
Earley, J.: An efficient context-free parsing algorithm. Commun. ACM 13(2), 94–102 (1970)
Tomita, M. (ed.): Generalized LR parsing. Kluwer Academic Publishers (1991)
Rekers, J.: Parser Generation for Interactive Environments. PhD thesis, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (1992)
McPeak, S., Necula, G.C.: Elkhound: A fast, practical GLR parser generator. In: Duesterwald, E. (ed.) CC 2004. LNCS, vol. 2985, pp. 73–88. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Baxter, I.D., Pidgeon, C., Mehlich, M.: DMS®: Program transformations for practical scalable software evolution. In: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE 2004, pp. 625–634. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC (2004)
Scott, E., Johnstone, A.: GLL parse-tree generation. Science of Computer Programming (2012) (to appear) ISSN:0167-6423
Aho, A.V., Johnson, S.C., Ullman, J.D.: Deterministic parsing of ambiguous grammars. In: Proceedings of the 1st Annual ACM SIGACT-SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, POPL 1973, pp. 1–21. ACM (1973)
Aho, A.V., Lam, M.S., Sethi, R., Ullman, J.D.: Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools, 2nd edn. Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston (2006)
Visser, E.: Scannerless generalized-LR parsing. Technical Report P9707, Programming Research Group, University of Amsterdam (July 1997)
Klint, P., van der Storm, T., Vinju, J.: EASY meta-programming with rascal. In: Fernandes, J.M., Lämmel, R., Visser, J., Saraiva, J. (eds.) Generative and Transformational Techniques in Software Engineering III. LNCS, vol. 6491, pp. 222–289. Springer, Heidelberg (2011), http://www.rascal-mpl.org
Klint, P., Visser, E.: Using filters for the disambiguation of context-free grammars. In: Pighizzini, G., San Pietro, P. (eds.) Proc. ASMICS Workshop on Parsing Theory, Milano, Italy, Tech. Rep. 126–1994, pp. 1–20. Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Informazione, Università di Milano (1994)
Visser, E.: Syntax Definition for Language Prototyping. PhD thesis, University of Amsterdam (1997)
Aasa, A.: Precedences in specifications and implementations of programming languages. Theor. Comput. Sci. 142(1), 3–26 (1995)
Thorup, M.: Disambiguating grammars by exclusion of sub-parse trees. Acta Informatica 33(5), 511–522 (1996)
Thorup, M.: Controlled grammatic ambiguity. ACM Trans. Program. Lang. Syst. 16(3), 1024–1050 (1994)
Visser, E.: From context-free grammars with priorities to character class grammars. In: van Deursen, A., Brune, M., Heering, J. (eds.) Dat Is Dus Heel Interessant, Liber Amicorum Dedicated to Paul Klint, pp. 217–230. CWI (1997)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Afroozeh, A., van den Brand, M., Johnstone, A., Scott, E., Vinju, J. (2013). Safe Specification of Operator Precedence Rules. In: Erwig, M., Paige, R.F., Van Wyk, E. (eds) Software Language Engineering. SLE 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8225. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02654-1_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02654-1_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02653-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02654-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)