type2/readme.md
2025-09-23 21:46:56 +02:00

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# type2
— a slow, but versatile reader for arbitrary context free languages (Chomsky hierarchy type 2).
Being fed with a JSON file, which specifies the language, and a string via `stdin`, it analyzes the input, decomposes it and writes its corresponding abstract syntax tree to `stdout`.
A typical call looks like this: `cat input.txt | type2 language.tp2.json`
## Working principle
```mermaid
flowchart LR
input_string[input string]
terminal_symbol_chain[terminal symbol chain]
abstract_syntax_tree[abstract syntax tree]
output_string[output string]
input_string -- lexical analysis --> terminal_symbol_chain
terminal_symbol_chain -- parsing --> abstract_syntax_tree
abstract_syntax_tree -- JSON encoding --> output_string
```
## Language specification
A language is specified by a JSON file, which represents a value of the following type:
```
record<
version:string,
lexer_rules:list<
record<
pattern:string,
name:(null|string),
?pass:boolean
>
>,
parser_rules:list<
record<
label:string,
premise:string,
conclusion:list<
record<
type:string,
parameters:map<string,any>
>
>
>
>,
parser_start:string
>
```
where:
- `version` should be `"2"`
- `lexer_rules.*.pass` controls, whether the read sequence shall be incorporated or not
- `parser_rules.*.conclusion.*.type` is one of `terminal`, `variable` (see section _Conclusion element types_)
- `parser_start` is one of the parser rule `label` values
The recommended extension for such files is `.tp2.json`.
### Conclusion element types
| type | meaning | parameters |
|-- |-- |-- |
| `terminal` | the part is a terminal symbol | `id` |
| `variable` | the part is a syntactic variable | `id` |