Getting the AST from your ANTLR grammar is super helpful. --emi
On Wed, Oct 31, 2018 at 7:28 AM Peter Blemel <pble...@hotmail.com> wrote: > Hi Mario, > > I have written 3 language plugins for Netbeans. I think the answer to > your question depends on what you want to do, and what you already have in > hand. > > The Netbeans platform differentiates between support for lexing and > support for parsing. While I have not used JFlex, JFlex is a lexer / token > generator. You could add token coloring to NetBeans using it (glossing > over details about how to adapt JFlex tokens to Netbeans). Unlike a parser > generator, JFlex won't parse syntax which by definition limits the > functionality you'll be able to implement for your language users in the > IDE. As an aside, all of the JFlex web pages I've found without digging > too deeply are circa 2011. > > JavaCC and ANTLR are parser generators that create parsers that in turn > generate syntax trees (again, glossing over important implementation > details). In addition to finding errors in the users' input to support > features like markup in the editor (as opposed to just coloring tokens with > a lexer), components such as the Navigator need data that a parser can > produce. > > In my case my integrations use JavaCC for no other reason other than that > I had already written the parsers for my languages in JavaCC (first and > second order predicate logic languages, and a music language), but having > walked through the ANTLR tutorials it seems to be a matter of personal > preference at the end of the day. My suggestion is use whichever one > you're familiar with, or in my case already have code for which saved me > the step of re-writing grammars for different parser generators. > > I hope to be trying to migrate my language support to the Apache Netbeans > platform soon, but other things have been persistently stuck at the top of > my stack :-/. At that point I will be able to speak to issues regarding > JavaCC support moving forward. > > Best, > Peter > > ________________________________ > From: Mario Schroeder <ma.schroe...@gmail.com> > Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2018 1:37 PM > To: dev@netbeans.incubator.apache.org > Subject: recommendation for language support > > Hi, > > I would appreciate when someone could set me on the right track. I'm > wondering what is the best way to write a plugin with a support for a new > language. > > I have found this old tutorial: > http://wiki.netbeans.org/How_to_create_support_for_a_new_language > It uses JavaCC. The tutorial is linked to another one, which makes use of > ANTLR. When I have a look at NetBeans source code, there are some templates > written with JFlex. So I'm confused. Which one should I use? > > I would prefer ANTLR, since there seems to be more documentation for it. > Does anyone have a recommendation? > > Regards, > Mario >
