BNFC: A compiler front-end generator.

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The BNF Converter is a compiler construction tool generating a compiler front-end from a Labelled BNF grammar. It was originally written to generate Haskell code, but can also be used for generating Agda, C, C++, Java, Ocaml and XML code.

Given a Labelled BNF grammar the tool produces: an abstract syntax as a Haskell, Agda, C, C++, Ocaml module or Java directory, a case skeleton for the abstract syntax in the same language, an Alex, JLex, or Flex lexer generator file, a Happy, CUP, Bison, or Antlr parser generator file, a pretty-printer as a Haskell, Agda, C, C++, Java, or Ocaml module, an XML representation, a LaTeX file containing a readable specification of the language.

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Properties

Versions	2.4.1.1, 2.4.1.2, 2.4.2.0, 2.4.2.1, 2.5.0, 2.5.0.1, 2.6.0.0, 2.6.0.1, 2.6.0.2, 2.6.0.3, 2.7.0.0, 2.7.0.1, 2.7.0.2, 2.7.1, 2.8, 2.8.1, 2.8.2, 2.8.3, 2.8.3.1, 2.8.4, 2.9.0, 2.9.1, 2.9.2, 2.9.2, 2.9.3, 2.9.4, 2.9.4.1, 2.9.5
Change log	CHANGELOG.md
Dependencies	array, base (>=4.8 && <5), BNFC, containers, deepseq, directory, filepath, mtl (>=2.2.1), pretty (>=1.1 && <1.2), process, semigroups, string-qq, time [details]
License	BSD-3-Clause
Copyright	(c) Andreas Abel, Jonas Almström Duregård, Krasimir Angelov, Jean-Philippe Bernardy, Björn Bringert, Johan Broberg, Kyle Butt, Paul Callaghan, Grégoire Détrez, Markus Forsberg, Ola Frid, Peter Gammie, Thomas Hallgren, Pascal Hof, Simon Huber, Patrik Jansson, Kristofer Johannisson, Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho, Andreas Lööw, Justin Meiners, Kent Mein, Ulf Norell, Gabriele Paganelli, Michael Pellauer, Fabian Ruch, and Aarne Ranta 2002 - 2021. Free software under the BSD 3-clause license.
Author
Maintainer	bnfc-dev@googlegroups.com
Category	Parsing
Home page	http://bnfc.digitalgrammars.com/
Bug tracker	https://github.com/BNFC/bnfc/issues
Source repo	head: git clone git://github.com/BNFC/bnfc.git(source) this: git clone git://github.com/BNFC/bnfc.git(tag v2.9.2)(source)
Uploaded	by AndreasAbel at 2021-06-13T12:20:24Z

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BNFC

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BNFC-2.9.2.tar.gz [browse] (Cabal source package)
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Package maintainers

AndreasAbel, GregoireDetrez, MarkusForsberg, ThomasHallgren

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Readme for BNFC-2.9.2

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The BNF Converter

What is the BNF Converter?

The BNF Converter (bnfc) is a compiler construction tool generating a compiler front-end from a Labelled BNF grammar. It is currently able to generate Haskell, Agda, C, C++, Java, and OCaml, as well as XML representations.

Given a Labelled BNF grammar the tool produces:

an abstract syntax implementation
a case skeleton for the abstract syntax in the same language
an Alex, Ocamllex, JLex, or Flex lexer generator file
a Happy, Ocamlyacc, Menhir, ANTLR, CUP, or Bison parser generator file
a pretty-printer as a Haskell/Agda/C/C++/Java/Ocaml module
a Latex file containing a readable specification of the language

More information: http://bnfc.digitalgrammars.com/

Installation

Some binaries are available at https://github.com/BNFC/bnfc/releases. Installation from the Haskell sources is possible via stack or cabal.

Installation via stack (recommended)

You need a running installation of stack. To install and run the latest version of bnfc from stackage, enter at the command line:

  stack install BNFC
  bnfc --help

Installation via cabal

You need a running installation of a recent version of GHC and Cabal, most easily available via the Haskell Platform. To install and bnfc from hackage, enter at the command line:

  cabal install BNFC
  bnfc --help

Installing the development version

To install the development version of bnfc with the latest bugfixes (and regressions ;-)):

  git clone https://github.com/BNFC/bnfc.git
  cd bnfc/source

and then either

  cabal install

  stack install --stack-yaml stack-8.10.3.yaml

(replace 8.10.3 with your GHC version, and if you want to build with your installed GHC then add flag --system-ghc).

Mini tutorial

Build a first parser in 5 min (Haskell backend):
1. In a fresh directory, prepare a grammar file Sum.cf with the following content:
```
EInt.  Exp ::= Integer;
EPlus. Exp ::= Exp "+" Integer;
```
2. Build a parser (in Haskell) with bnfc:
```
bnfc -d -m Sum.cf  &&  make
```
  The make step needs the Haskell compiler GHC, the lexer generator alex and the parser generator happy (all included in the GHC installation).
3. Inspect the generated files in directory Sum.
4. Test the parser.
```
echo "1 + 2 + 3" | Sum/Test
```

Try the C-family backends. (The prerequisites, GNU C(++) compiler (gcc / g++), lexer generator flex and parser generator bison, are usually present):

bnfc --c   -m -o sum-c   Sum.cf  &&  make -C sum-c    &&  echo "1 + 2 + 3" | sum-c/TestSum
bnfc --cpp -m -o sum-cpp Sum.cf  &&  make -C sum-cpp  &&  echo "1 + 2 + 3" | sum-cpp/TestSum

Try the other backends:

Option	Backend
`--java`	Requires Java, JLex or JFlex, and CUP.
`--java-antlr`	Requires ANTLR.
`--ocaml`	Requires OCaml, `ocamllex` and `ocamlyacc`.
`--ocaml-menhir`	Uses menhir instead of `ocamlyacc`.
`--agda`	Produces Agda bindings to the parser generated for Haskell.
`--pygments`	Produces a lexer definition for the Python highlighting suite Pygments.

Documentation

https://bnfc.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

Support

You can discuss with us issues around bnfc on our mailing list bnfc-dev@googlegroups.com.

For current limitations of bnfc, or to report a new bug, please consult our issue tracker.

Contribute

Issue Tracker: https://github.com/BNFC/bnfc/issues
Source Code: https://github.com/BNFC/bnfc
Haskell coding style guide: https://github.com/andreasabel/haskell-style-guide/
Some pull request etiquette:
- Document, document, document! (See style guide)
- Include test cases that cover your feature.
- Include changelog entry.
- More etiquette: E.g. https://gist.github.com/mikepea/863f63d6e37281e329f8

License

The project is licensed under the BSD 3-clause license.

BNFC versions until 2.8.4 released under the GNU General Public License.