Visual Rails - laying the foundations...
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Yes, that’s correct - it’s ANTLR 2.6. The reason I’m using it is that v3 wasn’t out when I started this 18 months ago now.
The reason I haven’t switched yet is that v3 is very new and like any other new product will have bugs. One of the really, really nice things about ANTLR 2 is that I’ve now written about six parsers in it and I’ve not found a single bug. The main Ruby one is by far the most complex, and while some aspects of ANTLR 2 are a bit clunky and difficult to work with, it does a superb job.
The main thing that’s missing in the current Ruby parser is support for arbitrary expressions in mutiple left hand sides of an assignment - sort of like the method ... do thing, but a lot nastier for LL(2). It can be done but it takes forever to parse.
ANTLR 3 is scheduled for later on this year when its settled in a bit. I have to say I’m really looking forward to using it. I’m a big fan of Terrence Parr and ANTLR.
Dermot