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Completion support

Ted Zlatanov to recdescent:

Maybe P::RD could have better built-in completion support,
similar to the way <autotree> works: something you can access when a
rule fails that tells you how far it got and what was successfully
parsed.  Basically a $was_expecting variable, set automatically.

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Clean up parser object's unique namespace (i.e. delete all methods) when
object is destroyed

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Generalize repetitions to allow parse-time expressions in counts

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provide some mechanism to easily specify required vs optional repeated
alternatives and mutually exclusive alernatives

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Detect (and flag as an error) the use of return() is wrong in an action
(e.g. "Did you mean '$return =' instead?"

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Fix line counter.

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Fix truncation of traces

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Allow rules to access the raw string that has been consumed by the rule.

    rule: sub1 sub2 sub3
            { $return = $RD_CONSUMED }

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Allow <skip: <rule> > to specified what to skip in terms of a rule rather than
just a raw pattern

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Allow Parse::RecDescent to take a grammar and construct a
"reconstructor" or "dumper" for autotree'd data structures. For example:

    $parse   = Parse::RecDescent->new($autotree_grammar);
    $unparse = Parse::RecDescent->antiparser($autotree_grammar);

    $tree = $parse->startrule($text);

    $tree->munge_somehow();

    $text = $unparse->startrule($tree);

(but think of a better method name than "antiparser"!!! ;-)

================================================================================

Require {...} around code blocks within directives in V2

================================================================================

*Remove* (i.e. don't just disable) tracing code if not <trace>

================================================================================

Provide a ->Grammar() method to reconstruct the grammar string from a
(possibly extended) parser object. E.g.:

    say $parser->Grammar()

prints out entire grammar from which $parser was built.

Also provide a '-depth' option:

    say $parser->Grammar(-depth => $N)

that prints out rules to a given depth in the grammar
(also allow: -depth => -1 means all but pure terminals)

================================================================================

<singlerules> directive to prevent "re-opening" of rules by subsequent
definitions. I.e. if <singlerules> present all rules must have only one
definition

================================================================================

Update meta-grammar to capture current features

================================================================================

* in "was expecting" error message, add alternatives for zero or more
  options. For example:

    command option(s?) end

   prints:

    ...was expecting "end".

  should print

    ...was expecting "option" or "end".

================================================================================

* Consider <autoerror> and $RD_AUTOERROR to automatically add an <error> production
  to "pre-terminal" rules. May need to be smarter than just "every
  non-terminal" (analyse grammar tree and only add error messages to
  penultimate nodes? or is this just a bad idea?)

================================================================================

* Implement common prefix extraction (CPE) for cases like:

    ifstat: 'if' cond 'then' stat 'else' stat 'endif'
          | 'if' cond 'then' stat 'endif'

  This would avoid rematching items 1 to 4 of the 2nd prod,
  by just reusing @item[1..4] from the previous production

  Document use of simple <reject> to subvert CPE. E.g.:

    ifstat: 'if' cond 'then' stat 'else' stat 'endif'
          | <reject>
          | 'if' cond 'then' stat 'endif'

  doesn't use CPE.

================================================================================

* Add backtracking to rules containing repetition specifiers (in
  order to overcome repetitions "incorrigible" greed)?

================================================================================

* <autocommit> directive to insert <commit>s after common prefixes

================================================================================

* Handle left-recursion (preferably without rearranging grammar)
  No idea how to do this though ;=)


================================================================================

Add a pass-by-name iterface to the constructor (pass in a hash-ref).
I expect the constructor will take at least the following flags:

    -error      Same as $::RD_ERROR (and defaults to it)
    -warn       Same as $::RD_WARN (and defaults to it)
    -hint       Same as $::RD_HINT (and defaults to it)
    -trace      Same as $::RD_TRACE (and defaults to it)
    -autostub   Same as $::RD_AUTOSTUB (and defaults to it)
    -autoaction Same as $::RD_AUTOACTION (and defaults to it)
    -source     Specifies source of grammar (may be a file name or subroutine reference)
    -module     Specifies name of separate parser module to create (rather than generating an "on-the-fly" parser).
    -nodefaults Don't use defaults

Likewise, let grammar rules called as methods on the pasrer object
also take named args:

    -text       Text to parse (defaults to first non-flag arg)
    -line       Line at which text starts (defaults to second non-flag arg)
    -file       File from which text taken
    -args       Arguments to appear as @arg/%arg in rule (defaults to non-flag args 2..N)

Document this as the standard (and preferred) interface, with the current
positional interface relegated to "backwards compatibility".

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<fail> and <fail?> directives to immediately cause the entire parse to
fail (with error messages, if any are pending). (or maybe <fatal>)

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Generate #line directives to tie errors back into original file.

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Pluggable debugger?

Maybe all you need is for rules to call:

    # at the start of a rule...
    $thisparser->{tracer}->enter($rulename, $posInText)
        if $thisparser->{tracer};

    # at a successful match of a rule...
    $thisparser->{tracer}->match($rulename, $posInText, $production_num)
        if $thisparser->{tracer};

    # at the end of a rule...
    $thisparser->{tracer}->exit($rulename, $posInText)
        if $thisparser->{tracer};

    # ETC.

So then, by giving the parser a different tracer object, you can
instantly provide a new tracing mechanism.


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Grammar namespaces:

   >   So ... I'm looking for a way which I can break the parser into several
   > logical pieces ... and only compile what changes each time - using make.
   >   Any ideas on the best way to do this ?

Currently there is no good way to do this. Others have asked for this too,
so I will definitely provide some solution in the next release. That solution
will probably consist of allowing parts of a grammar to be specified in
different namespaces. For example:

    <namespace: general>

        startrule: rule(s)

            rules: R1::rule | R2::rule | R3::rule

    <namespace: R1>

        rule: prefix middle suffix

    <namespace: R2>

        rule: middle suffix

    <namespace: R3>

        rule: prefix middle

    <namespace:>    # unnamed namespace is common

        prefix: /blah/ blah 'blah'
        middle: /BLAH/ BLAH 'BLAH'
        suffix: /blah/ blah 'blah'

Apart from the obvious benefit of allowing names to be reused, this would also
solve your precompilation problem, since the various namespaces would be
compiled as separate modules. The Precompile method would then take an extra
optional argument, specifying which namespace/module to precompile.

Then your makefile might look like:

    VHDL: general.pm R1.pm R2.pm R3.pm

    general.pm: general.rd
        perl -MParse::RecDescent - general.rd VHDL general

    R1.pm: R1.rd
        perl -MParse::RecDescent - R1.rd VHDL R1

    R2.pm: R2.rd
        perl -MParse::RecDescent - R2.rd VHDL R2

    etc.


Does this sound like a good solution to your problem?

Damian

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<insensitive> dircetive to add /i to all terminals (including literals)

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Allow a second kind of unconditional autoaction...

Feedback:

   > (3) Wish to have: I realize that AUTOACTION is executed for a matching
   > rule only when no action is defined for that rule.  But I ran into
   > situations where a universal kind of action would be useful (mostly for
   > debugging purposes but where setting the TRACE flag seems overkill).  By
   > 'universal' I mean an action that is executed for ALL matching rules
   > regardless of whether individual action exists.  This 'universal' action
   > can either precede or follow the execution of individual action.

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Allow multiple lhs's for a rule. That is,
instead of:

    keyword: /\w+/
    ident:   /\w+/
    name:    /\w+/

allow:

    (keyword ident name): /\w+/

(Thanks Colin)


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Hi Damian,

I stumbled over a possible bug in your module: It doesn't seem to like
raw "<<" or "<<=" inside actions. They work fine inside quoted strings
though.


Here is the stripped down version of the grammar which triggers the problem:

-------------------------------------------------------
use strict;
use warnings;
use Parse::RecDescent;

$::RD_HINT  = 1;
$::RD_TRACE = 1;
my $parser = Parse::RecDescent->new(<<'END_OF_GRAMMAR'

rule1: rule2 {
        # BEGIN TEST CODE
        my $dummy = 1 << 2;
        # END TEST CODE
       }

rule2: /^\w+/

END_OF_GRAMMAR
                   )
  or die "Can't compile grammar\n";
-------------------------------------------------------

This is caused by a bug in Text::Balanced:
https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=74714

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Support named options to Precompile and other public methods

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Separate out "runtime" stuff to avoid the "#ifndef RUNTIME" hack
inside of Precompile.