enkiv2 / ggc

Generative Grammar Compiler

ggc

Generative Grammar Compiler

Usage:

./ggc.sh <input.gg >output.py

See examples/test.gg, examples/zizek.gg, and examples/herosjourney.gg for examples of grammars of varying complexity.

Notes:

• Anonymous rules are possible by enclosing options in braces ({})
• Named rules can be substituted using a single dollar sign before the named rule. If two dollar signs are used, then a cached expansion of that rule will be used instead (and everywhere that the double-dollarsign version is used will be the same).
• Lines beginning with '#' are comments, unless they begin with '#include' -- in which case, the second (space-separated) token is a filename to include. This filename cannot include spaces, because the spaces cannot be escaped.
• Duplicated spaces or separators will not be deduplicated; this is a FEATURE.
• Arbitrary python code can be inserted into a rule, if you're clever about it. (See the definition for HeroPronoun in herosjourney as an example.) This is currently the only way to do conditionals. This code is not sanitized or sandboxed. Obviously, you should manually check any untrusted grammar.

Bugs:

• Recursive grammars are not possible, because the generated python code will generate all possible components immediately, whether or not they are used.
• Mismatched braces are neither detected nor handled gracefully. (WONTFIX)

ggc's Issues

License?

I am unsure whether the GGC is meant to be freeware (where you can use the program for whatever you want, but you are not allowed to add any additional features and distribute them to others), or open source (if you intend to allow people to contribute their own changes and versions to GGC, or to create their own forks).

If it is the latter, I would recommend adding a license so people know how they can contribute to the project, without fear of legal liability in the future.

I understand that it is a bit silly to have a License that is likely going to have more lines than the actual code itself, but the consequences seem okay. You could also provide a link to your preferred license if you want.