Description

type2 is 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

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"
• parser_start is one of the parser rule label values.
• lexer_rules.*.type is one of ignore, void, boolean, int, float, string (see section Lexer rule types)
• parser_rules.*.conclusion.*.type is one of terminal, variable (see section Conclusion element types)

The recommended extension for such files is .tp2.json.

Lexer rule types

type	meaning	parameters
ignore	disregard matching strings	pattern
void	do not assign a value to matching strings	pattern, id
boolean	interpret matching strings as boolean values	pattern, id, value
int	interpret matching strings as integer number values	pattern, id
float	interpret matching strings as floating point number values	pattern, id
string	interpret matching strings as string values	pattern, id

Conclusion element types

type	meaning	parameters
terminal	the part is a terminal symbol	id
variable	the part is a syntactic variable	id