sly/README.txt

SLY (Sly Lex-Yacc)                   Version 0.3

Copyright (C) 2016-2018
David M. Beazley (Dabeaz LLC)
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
met:

* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
  this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.  
* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, 
  this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
  and/or other materials provided with the distribution.  
* Neither the name of the David Beazley or Dabeaz LLC may be used to
  endorse or promote products derived from this software without
  specific prior written permission. 

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
"AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
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LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
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(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

CAUTION
=======
THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS.  NO OFFICIAL RELEASE HAS BEEN MADE.
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Requirements
============

SLY requires the use of Python 3.6 or greater.  Older versions
of Python are not supported.

Introduction
============

SLY is a 100% Python implementation of the lex and yacc tools
commonly used to write parsers and compilers.  Parsing is
based on the same LALR(1) algorithm used by many yacc tools.
Here are a few notable features:

 -  SLY provides *very* extensive error reporting and diagnostic 
    information to assist in parser construction.  The original
    implementation was developed for instructional purposes.  As
    a result, the system tries to identify the most common types
    of errors made by novice users.  

 -  SLY provides full support for empty productions, error recovery,
    precedence specifiers, and moderately ambiguous grammars.

 -  SLY uses various Python metaprogramming features to specify
    lexers and parsers.  There are no generated files or extra
    steps involved. You simply write Python code and run it.

 -  SLY can be used to build parsers for "real" programming languages.
    Although it is not ultra-fast due to its Python implementation,
    SLY can be used to parse grammars consisting of several hundred
    rules (as might be found for a language like C).  

SLY originates from the PLY project (http://www.dabeaz.com/ply/index.html).
However, it's been modernized a bit.  In fact, don't expect any code
previously written for PLY to work. That said, most of the things 
that were possible in PLY are also possible in SLY. 

An Example
==========

SLY is probably best illustrated by an example.  Here's what it
looks like to write a parser that can evaluate simple arithmetic
expressions and store variables:

    # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    # calc.py
    # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    from sly import Lexer, Parser

    class CalcLexer(Lexer):
        tokens = { NAME, NUMBER, PLUS, TIMES, MINUS, DIVIDE, ASSIGN, LPAREN, RPAREN }
        ignore = ' \t'

        # Tokens
        NAME = r'[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*'
        NUMBER = r'\d+'

        # Special symbols
        PLUS = r'\+'
        MINUS = r'-'
        TIMES = r'\*'
        DIVIDE = r'/'
        ASSIGN = r'='
        LPAREN = r'\('
        RPAREN = r'\)'

        # Ignored pattern
        ignore_newline = r'\n+'

        # Extra action for newlines
        def ignore_newline(self, t):
            self.lineno += t.value.count('\n')

        def error(self, t):
            print("Illegal character '%s'" % t.value[0])
            self.index += 1

    class CalcParser(Parser):
        tokens = CalcLexer.tokens

        precedence = (
            ('left', PLUS, MINUS),
            ('left', TIMES, DIVIDE),
            ('right', UMINUS),
            )

        def __init__(self):
            self.names = { }

        @_('NAME ASSIGN expr')
        def statement(self, p):
            self.names[p.NAME] = p.expr

        @_('expr')
        def statement(self, p):
            print(p.expr)

        @_('expr PLUS expr')
        def expr(self, p):
            return p.expr0 + p.expr1

        @_('expr MINUS expr')
        def expr(self, p):
            return p.expr0 - p.expr1

        @_('expr TIMES expr')
        def expr(self, p):
            return p.expr0 * p.expr1

        @_('expr DIVIDE expr')
        def expr(self, p):
            return p.expr0 / p.expr1

        @_('MINUS expr %prec UMINUS')
        def expr(self, p):
            return -p.expr

        @_('LPAREN expr RPAREN')
        def expr(self, p):
            return p.expr

        @_('NUMBER')
        def expr(self, p):
            return p.NUMBER

        @_('NAME')
        def expr(self, p):
            try:
                return self.names[p.NAME]
            except LookupError:
                print(f'Undefined name {p.NAME!r}')
                return 0

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        lexer = CalcLexer()
        parser = CalcParser()
        while True:
            try:
                text = input('calc > ')
            except EOFError:
                break
            if text:
                parser.parse(lexer.tokenize(text))

Documentation
=============

Further documentation can be found at https://sly.readthedocs.io/en/latest

Resources
=========

For a detailed overview of parsing theory, consult the excellent
book "Compilers : Principles, Techniques, and Tools" by Aho, Sethi, and
Ullman.  The topics found in "Lex & Yacc" by Levine, Mason, and Brown
may also be useful.

The GitHub page for SLY can be found at:

     https://github.com/dabeaz/sly

Please direct bug reports and pull requests to the GitHub page.
To contact me directly, send email to dave@dabeaz.com or contact
me on Twitter (@dabeaz).
 
-- Dave