Using ANTLR Like a Professional - II Edition

PARSING IS MORE THAN READING FILES

Parsing allows you to extract the data you want from a textual input in any format. It could be a text file, a binary file or source code. You could parse a Nginx or Apache log file, a JPG file, a Java, Python or any computer language file.

Knowing how to parse means knowing how to analyze and understand any format.

You can build a parser from scratch, but using a tool to generate a parser is much easier and quicker.

ANTLR IS THE BEST WAY TO PARSE

ANTLR is the parser generator tool you want to use to build your parser.

Created by Terence Parr and developed since 1989.

ANTLR is a whole set of tools to help be productive: from debugging grammars to visualize the result of parsing.

You do not need to know the theory behind parsing algorithms. You do not need to know what left-recursive expressions are or what is context-sensitive parsing. No need to write unnaturally complicated rules.

You can build any grammar you need to be productive and ANTLR will make it work.

You can write just one grammar and let ANTLR generate parsers in many languages (Java, C#, Python, etc.)

There is an entire repository full of grammars ready to use, containing data format and even entire languages.

WHAT PEOPLE SAYS ABOUT ANTLR AND OUR COURSE

- Guido van Rossum, Inventor of Python

- August 17, 2020 – Norman Jaffe

SAVE TIME AND LEARN FROM REAL-LIFE EXPERIENCE

Sure, a tool makes you create something quickly, but you need to learn how to use it. You need documentation and experiment to learn all the tricks to create a project that works well. And this takes time and frustration, searching the web (and StackOverflow) hoping to find a tutorial or an answer.

This is especially true for a professional tool like ANTLR. A lot of the information out there is geared toward parsing experts, people that use parsing everyday in their work, people that already know what and how to do and they just need to know what function to calls.

But what if you do not know all the theory? You get lost, jumping from page to page trying to get things working.

We feel your pain, because that is how we were forced to learn many things. But we can give you a better way.

That is where this course comes in. It saves you time and give you the answers you need to create and use parsers with ANTLR. It explains the theory you need to work with parsers, it puts together all the necessary information. It shows how to use ANTLR and the tricks that save you time and net you a better parser.

You are a professional developer. Your time is very valuable. Save money by learning in a few hours what would take weeks of trials and errors.

THE VIDEO COURSE LESSONS

1. Introduction to Parsers. What are parsers and what they are good for. Explanation of the elements of a parser

2. Introduction to ANTLR. Setting up ANTLR and how to use the command line tools.

3. Grammar. The basic format of a grammar and its elements. How to write Lexer and Parser rules and their typical patterns.

4. Listeners and Visitors. What are Listeners and Visitors and how you can use them to manage the results of the parsing.

5. Errors. Reporting errors and dealing with them.

6. Testing. How to test grammars, listeners and visitors.

7. Actions. The more advanced (but less clean) way to work the results of parsing.

8. Semantic Predicates. What are semantic predicates and how to use them.

9. How to Deal With Expressions. The old way of dealing with expressions and the new simpler way.

10. Lexical Modes. What are lexical modes and how you can use them to parse documents with multiple languages.

11. Tips and Tricks. A few tips and tricks to use ANTLR.

12. Parsing Real Programming Languages. What issues you will find and how to solve them when parsing a real programming language.

13. Designing a Grammar. How to design a grammar, starting from scratch or from an existing one.

14. What Comes Next. A short introduction to other elements you need to build a compiler and how to integrate them with ANTLR.

15. (NEW) From Parse Tree to Abstract Syntax Tree. How to get from a parse tree to an Abstract Syntax Tree. Understanding the process and what things to transform

16. (NEW) Creating an AST. Full example of transforming a parse tree in an AST

17. (NEW) (Professional) Transforming Complex Parse Trees. Handling complex parse trees

18. (NEW) (Professional) Setting Up for Performance. The mistakes to avoid in the organization of your ANTLR setup and grammar

19. (NEW) (Professional) Changes to Improve Performance. The patterns to use and the ones to avoid in your grammar rules

20. (NEW) (Professional) Tweaking ANTLR to Improve Performance. How to tweak ANTLR to squeeze more performance from the same grammar

STANDARD EDITION

• The 3H 1/2 video course
• The whole code in Python, JavaScript and C# of the project and examples in the video course (and a few more!)
• A 50+ pages manual with cheatsheets for ANTLR
• 5 Example Grammars explained and commented ranging from data formats to programming languages
• A short document to get you started on using Grun
• Subtitles for all lessons included
• Transcripts of all lessons included
• You will also receive an invitation to join a reserved area in the Strumenta community on Language Engineering

PROFESSIONAL EDITION

• The 4H video course
• A Guide on Best practices for writing and designing ANTLR parsers
• The whole code in Python, JavaScript and C# of the project and examples in the video course (and a few more!)
• A 50+ pages manual with cheatsheets for ANTLR
• 5 Example Grammars explained and commented ranging from data formats to programming languages
• A short document to get you started on using Grun
• Subtitles for all lessons included
• Transcripts of all lessons included
• You will also receive an invitation to join a reserved area in the Strumenta community on Language Engineering