How to write a language parser ?

[Mark Lawrence]

On 22/02/2013 16:29, Timothy Madden wrote:
> Hello
>
> I am trying to write a DBGp client in python, to be used for debugging
> mostly php scripts.
>
> Currently the XDebug module for php allows me to set breakpoints on any
> line, include blank ones and lines that are not considered executable,
> resulting in breakpoints that will never be hit, even if program flow
> control appears to pass through the lines.
>
> For that I would like to write a php parser, in order to detect the
> proper breakpoints line for statements spanning multiple lines.
>
> Is there an (open-source) way to do to this in python code ? Most
> parsers I could see after a search are either too simple for a real
> programming language, or based on a python module written in C. My debug
> client is a Vim plugin, and I would like to distribute it as script
> files only, if that is possible. The generator itself my well be a C
> module, as I only distribute the generated output.
>
> The best parser I could find is PLY, and I would like to know if it is
> good enough for the job. My attempt at a bison parser (C only) ended in
> about a hundred conflicts, most of which are difficult to understand,
> although I admit I do not know much about the subject yet.
>
> Are there other parsers you have used for complete languages ?
>
> Thank you,
> Timothy Madden

http://nedbatchelder.com/text/python-parsers.html

-- 
Cheers.

Mark Lawrence