Hello everyone,

Version 2.5 of the GOLD Parser Builder was just released.


----------------------------
Major Changes in Version 2.5
----------------------------

Version 2.5 of the GOLD Parser Builder was just released. The changes
are as follows:

* The functionality of Program Templates was expanded significantly.
The templates contain a number of new tags and blocks that allow the
entire contents of the Symbol Table, Rule Table, Character Set Table,
DFA Table and LALR Table to be exported. Please see
http://www.devincook.com/goldparser/.../doc/templates for more
information.

* The 'Create a Skeleton Program' window now displays a 'scanning'
message. When the window is first loaded, it scans the contents of the
\templates folder. This can take a few moments.

* The format of the file created by the 'Export to XML' tool was
modified slightly.

* Made a few minor tweaks to the LALR State Browser.

* Fixed the double-paste bug. When text was pasted into the Grammar
Editor, it would be pasted twice.


-----------------------------
About the GOLD Parsing System
-----------------------------

The GOLD Parser is a free, pseudo-open source, parser generator that
you can use to develop your own compilers and emulators.

Modern bottom-up parsers use a Deterministic Finite Automaton (DFA) for
identifying different classes of tokens and a LALR(1) state machine to
parse them. The actual LALR(1) and DFA algorithms are easy to implement
since they rely on tables to determine actions and state transition.
Consequently, it is the computing of these tables that is both
time-consuming and complex.

Unlike compiler-compilers, the GOLD Parser does not require you to
embed your grammar directly into your source code. Instead, the Builder
analyzes the grammar description and saves the parse tables to a
separate file. This information can be, subsequently, loaded by the
actual parser engine and used.

As of this writing, GOLD supports:

* ANSI C
* C#
* Delphi 3 & 5
* Java
* Python
* Visual Basic .NET
* Visual Basic 5 & 6
* Visual C++

* All ActiveX languages
* All .NET Languages


Please visit http://www.DevinCook.com/GOLDParser. Have a great day and
happy programming,

- Devin Cook

<GOLDParser@DevinCook.com> wrote in message
news:1103546630.320782.92430@c13g2000cwb.googlegro ups.com...
Hmmm, what is pseudo-open source? Perhaps you mean open
source pseudo-code?

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The software consists of two distinct modules. The first, the
"Builder", is used to analyze a grammar and generate the parse tables.
This information is then saved to a binary file or (as of version 2.5)
embedded directly in a program. The second module, The "Engine" is
implemented in different programming languages.
The Builder is not yet open-source. The Engine is.

- Devin Cook

"Devin Cook" <GOLDParser@DevinCook.com> wrote in message
news:1103710149.726914.164930@z14g2000cwz.googlegr oups.com...
A-ha! So it's partial open source. Thanks for the
clarification. When will the Builder become open source?

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Whoops. It the correct term "partial open source" rather than "pseudo
open source"?

GOLD is still very young - only about 2-3 years so far. One of the key
goals of GOLD is to support multiple programming languages.
Compiler-compilers are tied directly to a single programming language
(or different languages with simular syntacies).

Anyway, I will release the source of the Builder componant when the
meta-language used to describe grammars and the program template syntax
has been formalized through an organization such as the ACM, ANSI, ISO,
etc...

If the source was released beforehand, it is possible that a number of
competing versions of the software would appear. Each developer might
modify the grammar meta-language or other features such that grammars
cannot be directly ported between versions. The C Programming Language
had a simular problem until it was concisely defined by ANSI.

"Nameless" <nameless@chello.no> wrote:
Why would he want to do that?

Bill, dunno.

"Devin Cook" <GOLDParser@DevinCook.com> wrote in message
news:1103847931.964401.248300@f14g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com...
I should think so.

That sure does makes a lot of sense, Devin.

Yep, you can't trust anybody nowadays!

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