UniCC Parser Generator

• Phorward Toolkit
• UniCC Parser Generator
• Miscellaneous

UniCC is a universal LALR(1) parser generator, targetting C, C++, Python, JavaScript, JSON and XML.

Overview

UniCC (UNIversal Compiler-Compiler) compiles an augmented grammar definition into a program source code that parses the described grammar. Because UniCC is intended to be target-language independent, it can be configured via template definition files to emit parsers in almost any programming language.

UniCC comes with out of the box support for the programming languages C, C++, Python (both 2.x and 3.x) and JavaScript. Parsers can also be generated into JSON and XML.

Example

This is the full definition for a four-function arithmetic syntax including their integer calculation semantics (in C).

#!language      "C";	// <- target language!

#whitespaces    ' \t';
#lexeme         int;
#default action [* @@ = @1 *];

#left           '+' '-';
#left           '*' '/';

//Defining the grammar
calc$           -> expr          [* printf( "= %d\n", @expr ) *]
                ;

expr            -> expr '+' expr [* @@ = @1 + @3 *]
                | expr '-' expr  [* @@ = @1 - @3 *]
                | expr '*' expr  [* @@ = @1 * @3 *]
                | expr '/' expr  [* @@ = @1 / @3 *]
                | '(' expr ')'   [* @@ = @2 *]
                | int
                ;

int             -> '0-9'         [* @@ = @1 - '0' *]
                | int '0-9'      [* @@ = @int * 10 + @2 - '0' *]
                ;

To build and run this example, do

$ unicc expr.par
$ cc -o expr expr.c
$ ./expr -sl
3*10-(2*4)+1
= 23

More real-world examples for parsers implemented with UniCC are xpl, rapidbatch and ViUR logics or can be found in the examples-folder.

Features

UniCC provides the following features and tools:

• Grammars are expressed in a powerful Backus-Naur-style meta language
• Generates parsers in C, C++, Python, JavaScript, JSON and XML
• Build-in scanner generator with full Unicode support
• Grammar prototyping features, virtual productions and anonymous nonterminals
• Abstract syntax tree notation features
• Semantically determined symbols
• Standard LALR(1) conflict resolution
• Platform-independent (console-based)

Documentation

The UniCC User Manual is the ultimative guide and reference for the UniCC parser generator.

It covers a general feature introducion in to UniCC, a beginner's tutorial guiding into the topic 'parsing' in general and how to implement parsers with UniCC, a UniCC compiler and language reference guide and a user's reference relating to the Standard C Parser Template. As an state-of-the-art example, the compiler for a simple programming language called XPL is developed alongside the howto guide.

The manual will be continously be updated and extended with more or detailed information and chapters. Hopefully it answers all of questions coming up when UniCC shall become the workhorse of your upcoming compiler project. If not, don't avoid to drop a mail, to get individual support and help with the UniCC Parser Generator and its subsequent modules.

Licensing

The UniCC LALR(1) Parser Generator can be used, modified and distributed under the BSD open source license.