GOLD Parser News: Version 2.2 was released!

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GOLD Parser News
2004-04-29
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Great News! The GOLD Parser Builder version 2.2 was just released!


---> http://www.DevinCook.com/GOLDParser




About the GOLD Parser
---------------------
The GOLD Parser is a free, open source, parser generator that you can use
to develop your own compilers and emulators.


Modern bottom-up parsers use a Deterministic Finite Automaton (DFA) for
identifying different classes of tokens and a LALR(1) state machine to
parse them. The actual LALR(1) and DFA algorithms are easy to implement
since they rely on tables to determine actions and state transition.
Consequently, it is the computing of these tables that is both
time-consuming and complex.


Unlike common compiler-compilers, the GOLD Parser does not require you to
embed your grammar directly into your source code. Instead, the Builder
analyzes the grammar description and saves the parse tables to a separate
file.


This information can be, subsequently, loaded by the actual parser engine
and used.


The GOLD Parser currently supports:


* Java
* All Microsoft .NET languages
* Delphi 3 & 5
* All ActiveX languages
* Visual C++
* ANSI C




Parser Engine Source Code
-------------------------
In the future, the source will be ported to as many additional
programming languages as possible. If you would like to port
the code to another language, your work will be deeply appreciated.
The GOLD Parser Engine source code is now available for:


* ANSI C
* C#
* Delphi 3 & 5
* Java
* Visual Basic 5
* Visual Basic .NET
* Visual C++






Major Changes in Version 2.2
----------------------------


* Added 'Virtual' terminals. These terminals are specified
    in the "Virtual Terminals" parameter. The system will
    enter these terminals into the symbol table, but they
    will not be entered into the Deterministic Finite
    Automata. As a result, the terminals will not be
    recognized by the tokenizer, but can, instead, be created
    by a specialized version of the Engine or by the
    developer. This can help developers parse languages which
    are not context free - such as Python.


* Added a few new options to the exporting to formatted
    text or web pages. You can now exclude LALR lookahead
    sets and unstarted configurations when exporting the
    parse tables.


* Program Templates now can create constants in lowercase.
    The ID-CASE parameter can contain Uppercase, Propercase
    and Lowercase. Previously, 'lowercase' was not allowed.


* Added a 'Trim Reductions' button to the Test Window
    toolbar. Beforehand, this option could only be changed
    from the main menu.


* The Test Window can now export the parse action table.
    Before, the test window would only export the parse tree.


* The formatting used in the Test Window was improved. The
    formatting used to list parse actions was modified. The
    new format is easier to interpret.


* I cleaned up much of the internal code. There are too
    many things to list.


* The acronym for 'GOLD' was changed again. The new acronym
    stands for Grammar Oriented Language Developer. This
    should be the last time the acronym is changed.


* Character constants between &D800 and &DBFF are no longer
    valid. These values are reserved in Unicode for UTF16
    encoding.


* The 'Export Formatted Text' utilty is now much faster.
    Both the speed and formatting used by this utility was
    improved.


* The Help toolbar button and menu item will now open the
    main online help page. Beforehand, the Help would open
    the meta-language documentation page.


* Fixed a bug when creating skeleton programs. If the
    Symbol or Rule prefix was blank, the system was adding
    the text 'Space'. This made if it difficult to create
    constant names without prefixes.Fixed a very minor bug
    with the Create Program Template window. When you browse
    for a different folder using the Create Skeleton Program
    utility, the system was not disabling the 'Create' button
    if no templates were found.


* Possibly fixed a bug concerning how the toolbar icons are
    displayed. On some systems, the toolbars were failing to
    remove the mask color (color that is transparent) on the
    icons. I made some revisions to the GUI library that
    might fix this. Time will only tell, though.

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