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<h1 class="doctools_title">grammar::peg::interp(n) 0.1.1 tcllib &quot;Grammar operations and usage&quot;</h1>
<div id="name" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="name">Name</a></h2>
<p>grammar::peg::interp - Interpreter for parsing expression grammars</p>
</div>
<div id="toc" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="toc">Table Of Contents</a></h2>
<ul class="doctools_toc">
<li class="doctools_section"><a href="#toc">Table Of Contents</a></li>
<li class="doctools_section"><a href="#synopsis">Synopsis</a></li>
<li class="doctools_section"><a href="#section1">Description</a></li>
<li class="doctools_section"><a href="#section2">THE INTERPRETER API</a></li>
<li class="doctools_section"><a href="#section3">Bugs, Ideas, Feedback</a></li>
<li class="doctools_section"><a href="#keywords">Keywords</a></li>
<li class="doctools_section"><a href="#category">Category</a></li>
<li class="doctools_section"><a href="#copyright">Copyright</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div id="synopsis" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="synopsis">Synopsis</a></h2>
<div class="doctools_synopsis">
<ul class="doctools_requirements">
<li>package require <b class="pkgname">Tcl 8.4</b></li>
<li>package require <b class="pkgname">grammar::mengine <span class="opt">?0.1?</span></b></li>
<li>package require <b class="pkgname">grammar::peg::interp <span class="opt">?0.1.1?</span></b></li>
</ul>
<ul class="doctools_syntax">
<li><a href="#1"><b class="cmd">::grammar::peg::interp::setup</b> <i class="arg">peg</i></a></li>
<li><a href="#2"><b class="cmd">::grammar::peg::interp::parse</b> <i class="arg">nextcmd</i> <i class="arg">errorvar</i> <i class="arg">astvar</i></a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div id="section1" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="section1">Description</a></h2>
<p>This package provides commands for the controlled matching of a
character stream via a parsing expression grammar and the creation
of an abstract syntax tree for the stream and partials.</p>
<p>It is built on top of the virtual machine provided by the package
<b class="package"><a href="../grammar_me/me_tcl.html">grammar::me::tcl</a></b> and directly interprets the parsing
expression grammar given to it.
In other words, the grammar is <em>not</em> pre-compiled but used as is.</p>
<p>The grammar to be interpreted is taken from a container object
following the interface specified by the package
<b class="package">grammar::peg::container</b>. Only the relevant parts
are copied into the state of this package.</p>
<p>It should be noted that the package provides exactly one instance
of the interpreter, and interpreting a second grammar requires
the user to either abort or complete a running interpretation, or
to put them into different Tcl interpreters.</p>
<p>Also of note is that the implementation assumes a pull-type
handling of the input. In other words, the interpreter pulls
characters from the input stream as it needs them. For usage
in a push environment, i.e. where the environment pushes new
characters as they come we have to put the engine into its
own thread.</p>
</div>
<div id="section2" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="section2">THE INTERPRETER API</a></h2>
<p>The package exports the following API</p>
<dl class="doctools_definitions">
<dt><a name="1"><b class="cmd">::grammar::peg::interp::setup</b> <i class="arg">peg</i></a></dt>
<dd><p>This command (re)initializes the interpreter. It returns the
empty string. This command has to be invoked first, before any
matching run.</p>
<p>Its argument <i class="arg">peg</i> is the handle of an object containing the
parsing expression grammar to interpret. This grammar has to be
valid, or an error will be thrown.</p></dd>
<dt><a name="2"><b class="cmd">::grammar::peg::interp::parse</b> <i class="arg">nextcmd</i> <i class="arg">errorvar</i> <i class="arg">astvar</i></a></dt>
<dd><p>This command interprets the loaded grammar and tries to match it
against the stream of characters represented by the command prefix
<i class="arg">nextcmd</i>.</p>
<p>The command prefix <i class="arg">nextcmd</i> represents the input stream of
characters and is invoked by the interpreter whenever the a new
character from the stream is required.
The callback has to return either the empty list, or a list of 4
elements containing the token, its lexeme attribute, and its location
as line number and column index, in this order.
The empty list is the signal that the end of the input stream has been
reached. The lexeme attribute is stored in the terminal cache, but
otherwise not used by the machine.</p>
<p>The result of the command is a boolean value indicating whether the
matching process was successful (<b class="const">true</b>), or not
(<b class="const">false</b>). In the case of a match failure error information will
be stored into the variable referenced by <i class="arg">errorvar</i>. The variable
referenced by <i class="arg">astvar</i> will always contain the generated abstract
syntax tree, however in the case of an error it will be only partial
and possibly malformed.</p>
<p>The abstract syntax tree is represented by a nested list, as
described in section <b class="sectref">AST VALUES</b> of
document <i class="term"><a href="../grammar_me/me_ast.html">grammar::me_ast</a></i>.</p></dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div id="section3" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="section3">Bugs, Ideas, Feedback</a></h2>
<p>This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain
bugs and other problems.
Please report such in the category <em>grammar_peg</em> of the
<a href="http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/reportlist">Tcllib Trackers</a>.
Please also report any ideas for enhancements you may have for either
package and/or documentation.</p>
<p>When proposing code changes, please provide <em>unified diffs</em>,
i.e the output of <b class="const">diff -u</b>.</p>
<p>Note further that <em>attachments</em> are strongly preferred over
inlined patches. Attachments can be made by going to the <b class="const">Edit</b>
form of the ticket immediately after its creation, and then using the
left-most button in the secondary navigation bar.</p>
</div>
<div id="keywords" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="keywords">Keywords</a></h2>
<p><a href="../../../../index.html#ll_k_">LL(k)</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#tdpl">TDPL</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#context_free_languages">context-free languages</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#expression">expression</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#grammar">grammar</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#matching">matching</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#parsing">parsing</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#parsing_expression">parsing expression</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#parsing_expression_grammar">parsing expression grammar</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#push_down_automaton">push down automaton</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#recursive_descent">recursive descent</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#state">state</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#top_down_parsing_languages">top-down parsing languages</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#transducer">transducer</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#virtual_machine">virtual machine</a></p>
</div>
<div id="category" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="category">Category</a></h2>
<p>Grammars and finite automata</p>
</div>
<div id="copyright" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="copyright">Copyright</a></h2>
<p>Copyright &copy; 2005-2011 Andreas Kupries &lt;andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net&gt;</p>
</div>
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