After saying HelloSablecc I also wanted to try out Antlr, which is another compiler-compiler for the Java space. As with that entry, this is just about getting Antlr going with a very simple “hello world” style grammar.

As I explore parser generator tools for external DomainSpecificLanguages, I've said HelloAntlr and HelloSablecc. If you spend much time looking at parser generators you can't really avoid looking at the old stalwarts lex and yacc (or their gnu counterparts flex and bison). I want to explore the way lex and yacc operate, but my C has got too rusty. As Erich Gamma quipped, I've got too lazy to take out my own garbage. Fortunately there is an implementation of a yaccish system for Java, which is just what I need.

When I said HelloCup I was looking at a yacc based parser in a language that didn't require me to handle my dirty pointers. Another alternative to play with is Ruby which now has a yaccish parser built in to the standard library - inevitably called racc.

I've done a small amount of playing around with SableCC recently. It took a bit of effort to get a “Hello World” style parser going, so I thought I'd put some notes here as to what I did to get it working. I'm not saying this is the best way to do it, but it may be useful if you're looking to play with it.