I am looking to make a small domain specific language and I'd like to see what the trade offs are between choosing between Yacc, Bison, or Anltr for the building the parser? Any advice?
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>> I'd like just a few more details on the advantages and disadvantages.
There is a key difference between Yacc/Bison and ANTLR, namely that the first generates an LALR parser (ie. bottom up) while the second generates an LL(k) parser (ie. top down). So, a different approach is needed when creating a parser with them. It matters less for the end result though, but certain languages might be better served with an LL(k) parser and others with an LALR parser. That in itself can be a deciding factor for choosing between the two.
Other than that, they are pretty close. As said in my previous post , ANTLR has a steeper learning curve (especially if you're already familiar with Yacc/Bison), but has more features, while Yacc/Bison is slightly more difficult to debug due to the cryptic output.
Both are sufficiently powerful for creating a parser for pretty much every language.
I won't say that one is better than the other, because they aren't. It depends on personal preference, and also on the language you are gonna generate a parser for (whether it's easier to represent it using an LALR parser or an LL(k) parser).
>> I've used Bison and found it easy to create a grammar and hard to insert useful error messages.
Yes, that's indeed quite hard. ANTLR is a bit better at that, but it's still not a trivial task.
>> I don't want to use ANTLR if it is not as well supported or less than 20% as popular than Yacc/Bison.
Yacc/Bison are the established big players in the parser generator domain, but ANTLR is gaining ground, and becoming more and more popular. So, I don't see that as a show-stopper :)
>> Is ANTLR not free software?
Yes, it is. It's released under the BSD license.
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by: Infinity08Posted on 2008-08-13 at 14:05:28ID: 22225644
Yacc/Bison and ANTLR are both good parser generators. Each has their advantages and disadvantages. Yacc/Bison generates more obscure error messages, and is more difficult to debug, while ANTLR is more complicated and has a steeper learning curve.
In the end, it comes down to personal preference imo. There's no real best choice between these two (note that I treat Yacc and Bison together since they are essentially the same).