File: pt_peg_language.n

package info (click to toggle)
tcllib 2.0%2Bdfsg-4
  • links: PTS
  • area: main
  • in suites: trixie
  • size: 83,572 kB
  • sloc: tcl: 306,798; ansic: 14,272; sh: 3,035; xml: 1,766; yacc: 1,157; pascal: 881; makefile: 124; perl: 84; f90: 84; python: 33; ruby: 13; php: 11
file content (762 lines) | stat: -rw-r--r-- 23,162 bytes parent folder | download | duplicates (2)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
'\"
'\" Generated from file 'pt_peg_language\&.man' by tcllib/doctools with format 'nroff'
'\" Copyright (c) 2009 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users\&.sourceforge\&.net>
'\"
.TH "pt::peg_language" n 1\&.1 tcllib "Parser Tools"
.\" The -*- nroff -*- definitions below are for supplemental macros used
.\" in Tcl/Tk manual entries.
.\"
.\" .AP type name in/out ?indent?
.\"	Start paragraph describing an argument to a library procedure.
.\"	type is type of argument (int, etc.), in/out is either "in", "out",
.\"	or "in/out" to describe whether procedure reads or modifies arg,
.\"	and indent is equivalent to second arg of .IP (shouldn't ever be
.\"	needed;  use .AS below instead)
.\"
.\" .AS ?type? ?name?
.\"	Give maximum sizes of arguments for setting tab stops.  Type and
.\"	name are examples of largest possible arguments that will be passed
.\"	to .AP later.  If args are omitted, default tab stops are used.
.\"
.\" .BS
.\"	Start box enclosure.  From here until next .BE, everything will be
.\"	enclosed in one large box.
.\"
.\" .BE
.\"	End of box enclosure.
.\"
.\" .CS
.\"	Begin code excerpt.
.\"
.\" .CE
.\"	End code excerpt.
.\"
.\" .VS ?version? ?br?
.\"	Begin vertical sidebar, for use in marking newly-changed parts
.\"	of man pages.  The first argument is ignored and used for recording
.\"	the version when the .VS was added, so that the sidebars can be
.\"	found and removed when they reach a certain age.  If another argument
.\"	is present, then a line break is forced before starting the sidebar.
.\"
.\" .VE
.\"	End of vertical sidebar.
.\"
.\" .DS
.\"	Begin an indented unfilled display.
.\"
.\" .DE
.\"	End of indented unfilled display.
.\"
.\" .SO ?manpage?
.\"	Start of list of standard options for a Tk widget. The manpage
.\"	argument defines where to look up the standard options; if
.\"	omitted, defaults to "options". The options follow on successive
.\"	lines, in three columns separated by tabs.
.\"
.\" .SE
.\"	End of list of standard options for a Tk widget.
.\"
.\" .OP cmdName dbName dbClass
.\"	Start of description of a specific option.  cmdName gives the
.\"	option's name as specified in the class command, dbName gives
.\"	the option's name in the option database, and dbClass gives
.\"	the option's class in the option database.
.\"
.\" .UL arg1 arg2
.\"	Print arg1 underlined, then print arg2 normally.
.\"
.\" .QW arg1 ?arg2?
.\"	Print arg1 in quotes, then arg2 normally (for trailing punctuation).
.\"
.\" .PQ arg1 ?arg2?
.\"	Print an open parenthesis, arg1 in quotes, then arg2 normally
.\"	(for trailing punctuation) and then a closing parenthesis.
.\"
.\"	# Set up traps and other miscellaneous stuff for Tcl/Tk man pages.
.if t .wh -1.3i ^B
.nr ^l \n(.l
.ad b
.\"	# Start an argument description
.de AP
.ie !"\\$4"" .TP \\$4
.el \{\
.   ie !"\\$2"" .TP \\n()Cu
.   el          .TP 15
.\}
.ta \\n()Au \\n()Bu
.ie !"\\$3"" \{\
\&\\$1 \\fI\\$2\\fP (\\$3)
.\".b
.\}
.el \{\
.br
.ie !"\\$2"" \{\
\&\\$1	\\fI\\$2\\fP
.\}
.el \{\
\&\\fI\\$1\\fP
.\}
.\}
..
.\"	# define tabbing values for .AP
.de AS
.nr )A 10n
.if !"\\$1"" .nr )A \\w'\\$1'u+3n
.nr )B \\n()Au+15n
.\"
.if !"\\$2"" .nr )B \\w'\\$2'u+\\n()Au+3n
.nr )C \\n()Bu+\\w'(in/out)'u+2n
..
.AS Tcl_Interp Tcl_CreateInterp in/out
.\"	# BS - start boxed text
.\"	# ^y = starting y location
.\"	# ^b = 1
.de BS
.br
.mk ^y
.nr ^b 1u
.if n .nf
.if n .ti 0
.if n \l'\\n(.lu\(ul'
.if n .fi
..
.\"	# BE - end boxed text (draw box now)
.de BE
.nf
.ti 0
.mk ^t
.ie n \l'\\n(^lu\(ul'
.el \{\
.\"	Draw four-sided box normally, but don't draw top of
.\"	box if the box started on an earlier page.
.ie !\\n(^b-1 \{\
\h'-1.5n'\L'|\\n(^yu-1v'\l'\\n(^lu+3n\(ul'\L'\\n(^tu+1v-\\n(^yu'\l'|0u-1.5n\(ul'
.\}
.el \}\
\h'-1.5n'\L'|\\n(^yu-1v'\h'\\n(^lu+3n'\L'\\n(^tu+1v-\\n(^yu'\l'|0u-1.5n\(ul'
.\}
.\}
.fi
.br
.nr ^b 0
..
.\"	# VS - start vertical sidebar
.\"	# ^Y = starting y location
.\"	# ^v = 1 (for troff;  for nroff this doesn't matter)
.de VS
.if !"\\$2"" .br
.mk ^Y
.ie n 'mc \s12\(br\s0
.el .nr ^v 1u
..
.\"	# VE - end of vertical sidebar
.de VE
.ie n 'mc
.el \{\
.ev 2
.nf
.ti 0
.mk ^t
\h'|\\n(^lu+3n'\L'|\\n(^Yu-1v\(bv'\v'\\n(^tu+1v-\\n(^Yu'\h'-|\\n(^lu+3n'
.sp -1
.fi
.ev
.\}
.nr ^v 0
..
.\"	# Special macro to handle page bottom:  finish off current
.\"	# box/sidebar if in box/sidebar mode, then invoked standard
.\"	# page bottom macro.
.de ^B
.ev 2
'ti 0
'nf
.mk ^t
.if \\n(^b \{\
.\"	Draw three-sided box if this is the box's first page,
.\"	draw two sides but no top otherwise.
.ie !\\n(^b-1 \h'-1.5n'\L'|\\n(^yu-1v'\l'\\n(^lu+3n\(ul'\L'\\n(^tu+1v-\\n(^yu'\h'|0u'\c
.el \h'-1.5n'\L'|\\n(^yu-1v'\h'\\n(^lu+3n'\L'\\n(^tu+1v-\\n(^yu'\h'|0u'\c
.\}
.if \\n(^v \{\
.nr ^x \\n(^tu+1v-\\n(^Yu
\kx\h'-\\nxu'\h'|\\n(^lu+3n'\ky\L'-\\n(^xu'\v'\\n(^xu'\h'|0u'\c
.\}
.bp
'fi
.ev
.if \\n(^b \{\
.mk ^y
.nr ^b 2
.\}
.if \\n(^v \{\
.mk ^Y
.\}
..
.\"	# DS - begin display
.de DS
.RS
.nf
.sp
..
.\"	# DE - end display
.de DE
.fi
.RE
.sp
..
.\"	# SO - start of list of standard options
.de SO
'ie '\\$1'' .ds So \\fBoptions\\fR
'el .ds So \\fB\\$1\\fR
.SH "STANDARD OPTIONS"
.LP
.nf
.ta 5.5c 11c
.ft B
..
.\"	# SE - end of list of standard options
.de SE
.fi
.ft R
.LP
See the \\*(So manual entry for details on the standard options.
..
.\"	# OP - start of full description for a single option
.de OP
.LP
.nf
.ta 4c
Command-Line Name:	\\fB\\$1\\fR
Database Name:	\\fB\\$2\\fR
Database Class:	\\fB\\$3\\fR
.fi
.IP
..
.\"	# CS - begin code excerpt
.de CS
.RS
.nf
.ta .25i .5i .75i 1i
..
.\"	# CE - end code excerpt
.de CE
.fi
.RE
..
.\"	# UL - underline word
.de UL
\\$1\l'|0\(ul'\\$2
..
.\"	# QW - apply quotation marks to word
.de QW
.ie '\\*(lq'"' ``\\$1''\\$2
.\"" fix emacs highlighting
.el \\*(lq\\$1\\*(rq\\$2
..
.\"	# PQ - apply parens and quotation marks to word
.de PQ
.ie '\\*(lq'"' (``\\$1''\\$2)\\$3
.\"" fix emacs highlighting
.el (\\*(lq\\$1\\*(rq\\$2)\\$3
..
.\"	# QR - quoted range
.de QR
.ie '\\*(lq'"' ``\\$1''\\-``\\$2''\\$3
.\"" fix emacs highlighting
.el \\*(lq\\$1\\*(rq\\-\\*(lq\\$2\\*(rq\\$3
..
.\"	# MT - "empty" string
.de MT
.QW ""
..
.BS
.SH NAME
pt::peg_language \- PEG Language Tutorial
.SH SYNOPSIS
package require \fBTcl 8\&.5 9\fR
.sp
.BE
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
Are you lost ?
Do you have trouble understanding this document ?
In that case please read the overview provided by the
\fIIntroduction to Parser Tools\fR\&. This document is the
entrypoint to the whole system the current package is a part of\&.
.PP
Welcome to the tutorial / introduction for the
\fBPEG Specification Language\fR\&.
If you are already familiar with the language we are about to discuss,
and only wish to refresh your memory you can, of course, skip ahead to
the aforementioned section and just read the full formal specification\&.
.SH "WHAT IS IT?"
\fBpeg\fR, a language for the specification of parsing expression
grammars is meant to be human readable, and writable as well, yet
strict enough to allow its processing by machine\&. Like any computer
language\&. It was defined to make writing the specification of a
grammar easy, something the other formats found in the Parser Tools do
not lend themselves too\&.
.SH "THE ELEMENTS OF THE LANGUAGE"
.SS "BASIC STRUCTURE"
The general outline of a textual PEG is
.CS


PEG <<name>> (<<start-expression>>)
   <<rules>>
END;

.CE
\fINote\fR: We are using text in double angle-brackets as
place-holders for things not yet explained\&.
.SS NAMES
Names are mostly used to identify the nonterminal symbols of the
grammar, i\&.e\&. that which occurs on the left-hand side of a <rule>\&.
The exception to that is the name given after the keyword \fBPEG\fR
(see previous section), which is the name of the whole grammar itself\&.
.PP
The structure of a name is simple:
.IP [1]
It begins with a letter, underscore, or colon, followed by
.IP [2]
zero or more letters, digits, underscores, or colons\&.
.PP
Or, in formal textual notation:
.CS


    ([_:] / <alpha>) ([_:] / <alnum>)*

.CE
Examples of names:
.CS


    Hello
    ::world
    _:submarine55_

.CE
Examples of text which are \fInot\fR names:
.CS


    12
    \&.bogus
    0wrong
    @location

.CE
.SS RULES
The main body of the text of a grammar specification is taken up by
the rules\&. Each rule defines the sentence structure of one nonterminal
symbol\&. Their basic structure is
.CS


     <<name>>  <-  <<expression>> ;

.CE
The <name> specifies the nonterminal symbol to be defined, the
<expression> after the arrow (<-) then declares its structure\&.
.PP
Note that each rule ends in a single semicolon, even the last\&.
I\&.e\&. the semicolon is a rule \fIterminator\fR, not a separator\&.
.PP
We can have as many rules as we like, as long as we define each
nonterminal symbol at most once, and have at least one rule for each
nonterminal symbol which occured in an expression, i\&.e\&. in either the
start expression of the grammar, or the right-hande side of a rule\&.
.SS EXPRESSIONS
The \fIparsing\fR expressions are the meat of any specification\&. They
declare the structure of the whole document (<<start-expression>>),
and of all nonterminal symbols\&.
.PP
All expressions are made up out of \fIatomic expressions\fR and
\fIoperators\fR combining them\&. We have operators for choosing
between alternatives, repetition of parts, and for look-ahead
constraints\&. There is no explicit operator for the sequencing (also
known as \fIconcatenation\fR) of parts however\&. This is specified by
simply placing the parts adjacent to each other\&.
.PP
Here are the operators, from highest to lowest priority (i\&.e\&. strength
of binding):
.CS


    # Binary operators\&.

    <<expression-1>>     <<expression-2>>  # sequence\&. parse 1, then 2\&.
    <<expression-1>>  /  <<expression-2>>  # alternative\&. try to parse 1, and parse 2 if 1 failed to parse\&.

    # Prefix operators\&. Lookahead constraints\&. Same priority\&.

    & <<expression>>  # Parse expression, ok on successful parse\&.
    ! <<expression>>  # Ditto, except ok on failure to parse\&.

    # Suffix operators\&. Repetition\&. Same priority\&.

    <<expression>> ?  # Parse expression none, or once (repeat 0 or 1)\&.
    <<expression>> *  # Parse expression zero or more times\&.
    <<expression>> +  # Parse expression one or more times\&.

    # Expression nesting

    ( <<expression>> ) # Put an expression in parens to change its priority\&.

.CE
With this we can now deconstruct the formal expression for names given
in section \fBNames\fR:
.CS


    ([_:] / <alpha>) ([_:] / <alnum>)*

.CE
It is a sequence of two parts,
.CS

    [_:] / <alpha>
.CE
and
.CS

    ([_:] / <alnum>)*
.CE
The parentheses around the parts kept their inner alternatives bound
together against the normally higher priority of the sequence\&. Each of
the two parts is an alternative, with the second part additionally
repeated zero or more times, leaving us with the three atomic
expressions
.CS


    [_:]
    <alpha>
    <alnum>

.CE
And \fIatomic expressions\fR are our next topic\&. They
fall into three classes:
.IP [1]
names, i\&.e\&. nonterminal symbols,
.IP [2]
string literals, and
.IP [3]
character classes\&.
.PP
Names we know about already, or see section \fBNames\fR for a
refresher\&.
.PP
String literals are simple\&. They are delimited by (i\&.e\&. start and end
with) either a single or double-apostroph, and in between the
delimiters we can have any character but the delimiter itself\&. They
can be empty as well\&. Examples of strings are
.CS


    ''
    ""
    'hello'
    "umbra"
    "'"
    '"'

.CE
The last two examples show how to place any of the delimiters into a
string\&.
.PP
For the last, but not least of our atomic expressions, character
classes, we have a number of predefined classes, shown below, and the
ability to construct or own\&. The predefined classes are:
.CS


    <alnum>    # Any unicode alphabet or digit character (string is alnum)\&.
    <alpha>    # Any unicode alphabet character (string is alpha)\&.
    <ascii>    # Any unicode character below codepoint 0x80 (string is ascii)\&.
    <control>  # Any unicode control character (string is control)\&.
    <ddigit>   # The digit characters [0-9]\&.
    <digit>    # Any unicode digit character (string is digit)\&.
    <graph>    # Any unicode printing character, except space (string is graph)\&.
    <lower>    # Any unicode lower-case alphabet character (string is lower)\&.
    <print>    # Any unicode printing character, incl\&. space (string is print)\&.
    <punct>    # Any unicode punctuation character (string is punct)\&.
    <space>    # Any unicode space character (string is space)\&.
    <upper>    # Any unicode upper-case alphabet character (string is upper)\&.
    <wordchar> # Any unicode word character (string is wordchar)\&.
    <xdigit>   # The hexadecimal digit characters [0-9a-fA-F]\&.
    \&.          # Any character, except end of input\&.

.CE
And the syntax of custom-defined character classes is
.CS


    [ <<range>>* ]

.CE
where each range is either a single character, or of the form
.CS


   <<character>> - <character>>

.CE
Examples for character classes we have seen already in the course of
this introduction are
.CS


    [_:]
    [0-9]
    [0-9a-fA-F]

.CE
We are nearly done with expressions\&. The only piece left is to tell
how the characters in character classes and string literals are
specified\&.
.PP
Basically characters in the input stand for themselves, and in
addition to that we several types of escape syntax to to repesent
control characters, or characters outside of the encoding the text is
in\&.
.PP
All the escaped forms are started with a backslash character ('\\',
unicode codepoint 0x5C)\&. This is then followed by a series of octal
digits, or 'u' and hexedecimal digits, or a regular character from a
fixed set for various control characters\&. Some examples:
.CS


    \\n \\r \\t \\' \\" \\[ \\] \\\\ #
    \\000 up to \\277         # octal escape, all ascii character, leading 0's can be removed\&.
    \\u2CA7                  # hexadecimal escape, all unicode characters\&.
    #                       # Here 2ca7 <=> Koptic Small Letter Tau

.CE
.SS "WHITESPACE AND COMMENTS"
One issue not touched upon so far is whitespace and comments\&.
.PP
Whitespace is any unicode space character, i\&.e\&. anything in the
character class <space>, and comments\&. The latter are sequences of
characters starting with a '#' (hash, unicode codepoint 0x23) and
ending at the next end-of-line\&.
.PP
Whitespace can be freely used between all syntactical elements of a
grammar specification\&. It cannot be used inside of syntactical
elements, like names, string literals, predefined character classes,
etc\&.
.SS "NONTERMINAL ATTRIBUTES"
Lastly, a more advanced topic\&. In the section \fBRules\fR we gave
the structure of a rule as
.CS


     <<name>>  <-  <<expression>> ;

.CE
This is not quite true\&. It is possible to associate a semantic mode
with the nonterminal in the rule, by writing it before the name,
separated from it by a colon, i\&.e\&. writing
.CS


    <<mode>> : <<name>>  <-  <<expression>> ;

.CE
is also allowed\&. This mode is optional\&. The known modes and their
meanings are:
.TP
\fBvalue\fR
The semantic value of the nonterminal symbol is an abstract syntax
tree consisting of a single node node for the nonterminal itself,
which has the ASTs of the symbol's right hand side as its children\&.
.TP
\fBleaf\fR
The semantic value of the nonterminal symbol is an abstract syntax
tree consisting of a single node node for the nonterminal, without any
children\&. Any ASTs generated by the symbol's right hand side are
discarded\&.
.TP
\fBvoid\fR
The nonterminal has no semantic value\&. Any ASTs generated by the
symbol's right hand side are discarded (as well)\&.
.PP
Of these three modes only \fBleaf\fR and \fBvoid\fR can be
specified directly\&. \fBvalue\fR is implicitly specified by the
absence of a mode before the nonterminal\&.
.PP
Now, with all the above under our belt it should be possible to not
only read, but understand the formal specification of the text
representation shown in the next section, written in itself\&.
.SH "PEG SPECIFICATION LANGUAGE"
\fBpeg\fR, a language for the specification of parsing expression
grammars is meant to be human readable, and writable as well, yet
strict enough to allow its processing by machine\&. Like any computer
language\&. It was defined to make writing the specification of a
grammar easy, something the other formats found in the Parser Tools do
not lend themselves too\&.
.PP
It is formally specified by the grammar shown below, written in
itself\&. For a tutorial / introduction to the language please go and
read the \fIPEG Language Tutorial\fR\&.
.PP
.CS


PEG pe_grammar_for_peg (Grammar)

	# --------------------------------------------------------------------
        # Syntactical constructs

        Grammar         <- WHITESPACE Header Definition* Final EOF ;

        Header          <- PEG Identifier StartExpr ;
        Definition      <- Attribute? Identifier IS Expression SEMICOLON ;
        Attribute       <- (VOID / LEAF) COLON ;
        Expression      <- Sequence (SLASH Sequence)* ;
        Sequence        <- Prefix+ ;
        Prefix          <- (AND / NOT)? Suffix ;
        Suffix          <- Primary (QUESTION / STAR / PLUS)? ;
        Primary         <- ALNUM / ALPHA / ASCII / CONTROL / DDIGIT / DIGIT
                        /  GRAPH / LOWER / PRINTABLE / PUNCT / SPACE / UPPER
                        /  WORDCHAR / XDIGIT
                        / Identifier
                        /  OPEN Expression CLOSE
                        /  Literal
                        /  Class
                        /  DOT
                        ;
        Literal         <- APOSTROPH  (!APOSTROPH  Char)* APOSTROPH  WHITESPACE
                        /  DAPOSTROPH (!DAPOSTROPH Char)* DAPOSTROPH WHITESPACE ;
        Class           <- OPENB (!CLOSEB Range)* CLOSEB WHITESPACE ;
        Range           <- Char TO Char / Char ;

        StartExpr       <- OPEN Expression CLOSE ;
void:   Final           <- "END" WHITESPACE SEMICOLON WHITESPACE ;

        # --------------------------------------------------------------------
        # Lexing constructs

        Identifier      <- Ident WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   Ident           <- ([_:] / <alpha>) ([_:] / <alnum>)* ;
        Char            <- CharSpecial / CharOctalFull / CharOctalPart
                        /  CharUnicode / CharUnescaped
                        ;

leaf:   CharSpecial     <- "\\\\" [nrt'"\\[\\]\\\\] ;
leaf:   CharOctalFull   <- "\\\\" [0-3][0-7][0-7] ;
leaf:   CharOctalPart   <- "\\\\" [0-7][0-7]? ;
leaf:   CharUnicode     <- "\\\\" 'u' HexDigit (HexDigit (HexDigit HexDigit?)?)? ;
leaf:   CharUnescaped   <- !"\\\\" \&. ;

void:   HexDigit        <- [0-9a-fA-F] ;

void:   TO              <- '-'           ;
void:   OPENB           <- "["           ;
void:   CLOSEB          <- "]"           ;
void:   APOSTROPH       <- "'"           ;
void:   DAPOSTROPH      <- '"'           ;
void:   PEG             <- "PEG" !([_:] / <alnum>) WHITESPACE ;
void:   IS              <- "<-"    WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   VOID            <- "void"  WHITESPACE ; # Implies that definition has no semantic value\&.
leaf:   LEAF            <- "leaf"  WHITESPACE ; # Implies that definition has no terminals\&.
void:   SEMICOLON       <- ";"     WHITESPACE ;
void:   COLON           <- ":"     WHITESPACE ;
void:   SLASH           <- "/"     WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   AND             <- "&"     WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   NOT             <- "!"     WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   QUESTION        <- "?"     WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   STAR            <- "*"     WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   PLUS            <- "+"     WHITESPACE ;
void:   OPEN            <- "("     WHITESPACE ;
void:   CLOSE           <- ")"     WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   DOT             <- "\&."     WHITESPACE ;

leaf:   ALNUM           <- "<alnum>"    WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   ALPHA           <- "<alpha>"    WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   ASCII           <- "<ascii>"    WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   CONTROL         <- "<control>"  WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   DDIGIT          <- "<ddigit>"   WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   DIGIT           <- "<digit>"    WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   GRAPH           <- "<graph>"    WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   LOWER           <- "<lower>"    WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   PRINTABLE       <- "<print>"    WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   PUNCT           <- "<punct>"    WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   SPACE           <- "<space>"    WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   UPPER           <- "<upper>"    WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   WORDCHAR        <- "<wordchar>" WHITESPACE ;
leaf:   XDIGIT          <- "<xdigit>"   WHITESPACE ;

void:   WHITESPACE      <- (" " / "\\t" / EOL / COMMENT)* ;
void:   COMMENT         <- '#' (!EOL \&.)* EOL ;
void:   EOL             <- "\\n\\r" / "\\n" / "\\r" ;
void:   EOF             <- !\&. ;

        # --------------------------------------------------------------------
END;

.CE
.SS EXAMPLE
Our example specifies the grammar for a basic 4-operation calculator\&.
.PP
.CS


PEG calculator (Expression)
    Digit      <- '0'/'1'/'2'/'3'/'4'/'5'/'6'/'7'/'8'/'9'       ;
    Sign       <- '-' / '+'                                     ;
    Number     <- Sign? Digit+                                  ;
    Expression <- Term (AddOp Term)*                            ;
    MulOp      <- '*' / '/'                                     ;
    Term       <- Factor (MulOp Factor)*                        ;
    AddOp      <- '+'/'-'                                       ;
    Factor     <- '(' Expression ')' / Number                   ;
END;

.CE
.PP
Using higher-level features of the notation, i\&.e\&. the character
classes (predefined and custom), this example can be rewritten as
.PP
.CS


PEG calculator (Expression)
    Sign       <- [-+]                                          ;
    Number     <- Sign? <ddigit>+                               ;
    Expression <- Term (AddOp Term)*                            ;
    MulOp      <- [*/]						;
    Term       <- Factor (MulOp Factor)*                        ;
    AddOp      <- [-+]						;
    Factor     <- '(' Expression ')' / Number                   ;
END;

.CE
.PP
.SH "BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK"
This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain
bugs and other problems\&.
Please report such in the category \fIpt\fR of the
\fITcllib Trackers\fR [http://core\&.tcl\&.tk/tcllib/reportlist]\&.
Please also report any ideas for enhancements you may have for either
package and/or documentation\&.
.PP
When proposing code changes, please provide \fIunified diffs\fR,
i\&.e the output of \fBdiff -u\fR\&.
.PP
Note further that \fIattachments\fR are strongly preferred over
inlined patches\&. Attachments can be made by going to the \fBEdit\fR
form of the ticket immediately after its creation, and then using the
left-most button in the secondary navigation bar\&.
.SH KEYWORDS
EBNF, LL(k), PEG, TDPL, context-free languages, expression, grammar, matching, parser, parsing expression, parsing expression grammar, push down automaton, recursive descent, state, top-down parsing languages, transducer
.SH CATEGORY
Parsing and Grammars
.SH COPYRIGHT
.nf
Copyright (c) 2009 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users\&.sourceforge\&.net>

.fi