Simple, Efficient, Sound and Complete Combinator Parsing for All Context-Free Grammars, Using an Oracle

Ridge, Tom

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-11245-9_15

Cited by 6 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(28 reference statements)

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“…The BSR elements are enumerated in Figure 4. As an example, consider grammar Γ EEE in Figure 3 taken from Ridge [20] and the execution of the fun-gll algorithm in Table 1 with grammar Γ EEE and t-string "1" as inputs. Each row of the table corresponds to the selection of a descriptor (second column) from the worklist.…”

Section: Fun-gllmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, memoisation can overcome some of the inefficiencies of backtracking [14], lookahead can reduce backtracking [15], sophisticated memoisation can handle left-recursion [16], and leftrecursion can be removed automatically [17]. Grammar combinator libraries extract grammars from combinator expressions before giving the grammars to a stand-alone parsing procedure [18,19] that may be generalised [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Purely functional GLL parsing

Binsbergen

Scott

Johnstone

2020

Journal of Computer Languages

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Generalised parsing has become increasingly important in the context of software language design and several compiler generators and language workbenches have adopted generalised parsing algorithms such as GLR and GLL. The original GLL parsing algorithms are described in low-level pseudo-code as the output of a parser generator. This paper explains GLL parsing differently, defining the FUN-GLL algorithm as a collection of pure, mathematical functions and focussing on the logic of the algorithm by omitting implementation details. In particular, the data structures are modelled by abstract sets and relations rather than specialised implementations. The description is further simplified by omitting lookahead and adopting the binary subtree representation of derivations to avoid the clerical overhead of graph construction. Conventional parser combinators inherit the drawbacks from the recursive descent algorithms they implement. Based on FUN-GLL, this paper defines generalised parser combinators that overcome these problems. The algorithm is described in the same notation and style as FUN-GLL and uses the same data structures. Both algorithms are explained as a generalisation of basic recursive descent algorithms. The generalised parser combinators of this paper have several advantages over combinator libraries that generate internal grammars. For example, with the generalised parser combinators it is possible to parse larger permutation phrases and to write parsers for languages that are not context-free. The 'BNF combinator library' is built around the generalised parser combinators. With the library, embedded and executable syntax specifications are written. The specifications contain semantic actions for interpreting programs and constructing syntax trees. The library takes advantage of Haskell's type-system to type-check semantic actions and Haskell's abstraction mechanism enables 'reuse through abstraction'. The practicality of the library is demonstrated by running parsers obtained from the syntax descriptions of several software languages.

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Section: Fun-gllmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Purely functional GLL parsing

Binsbergen

Scott

Johnstone

2020

Journal of Computer Languages

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“…Two certifications of full context-free parsers have been produced while the present paper was in submission. Ridge [2014] has produced a novel, fully verified parser that also has good practical performance. Firsov and Uustalu [2014] have verified the CYK parsing algorithm (a precursor of Valiant's).…”

Section: Smallestmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the parser of [Ridge, 2014], provides also a combinator interface, it begins by converting the grammar to a first order representation.…”

Section: Smallestmentioning

confidence: 99%

Certified Context-Free Parsing: A formalisation of Valiant's Algorithm in Agda

Bernardy

Jansson²

2016

Logical Methods in Computer Science

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Abstract. Valiant (1975) has developed an algorithm for recognition of context free languages. As of today, it remains the algorithm with the best asymptotic complexity for this purpose. In this paper, we present an algebraic specification, implementation, and proof of correctness of a generalisation of Valiant's algorithm. The generalisation can be used for recognition, parsing or generic calculation of the transitive closure of upper triangular matrices. The proof is certified by the Agda proof assistant. The certification is representative of state-of-the-art methods for specification and proofs in proof assistants based on type-theory. As such, this paper can be read as a tutorial for the Agda system.

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“…Using Earley's algorithm or GLL, it is possible to define a grammar in a combinator style, and then interpret such a grammar. Such interpretive version of Earley parsing is provided in [20]. In an earlier work [2], we provided an interpretive formulation of GLL Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practical, general parser combinators

Izmaylova

Afroozeh

Storm

2016

Proceedings of the 2016 ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Partial Evaluation and Program Manipulation

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Parser combinators are a popular approach to parsing where contextfree grammars are represented as executable code. However, conventional parser combinators do not support left recursion, and can have worst-case exponential runtime. These limitations hinder the expressivity and performance predictability of parser combinators when constructing parsers for programming languages.In this paper we present general parser combinators that support all context-free grammars and construct a parse forest in cubic time and space in the worst case, while behaving nearly linearly on grammars of real programming languages. Our general parser combinators are based on earlier work on memoized ContinuationPassing Style (CPS) recognizers. First, we extend this work to achieve recognition in cubic time. Second, we extend the resulting cubic CPS recognizers to parsers that construct a binarized Shared Packed Parse Forest (SPPF).Our general parser combinators bring the best of both worlds: the flexibility and extensibility of conventional parser combinators and the expressivity and performance guarantees of general parsing algorithms. We used the approach presented in this paper as the basis for Meerkat, a general parser combinator library for Scala.

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Simple, Efficient, Sound and Complete Combinator Parsing for All Context-Free Grammars, Using an Oracle

Cited by 6 publications

References 13 publications

Purely functional GLL parsing

Purely functional GLL parsing

Certified Context-Free Parsing: A formalisation of Valiant's Algorithm in Agda

Practical, general parser combinators

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