Posted 16 years ago
by Nassim Farhat
Hello, I am a beginner with the ActiPro tool with around 1 year of experience in C#. I had a few questions concerning how I should start my project using your tools. I spent the last 2 days reading up on the SyntaxEditor control, dynamic languages, programmatic lexical parsers etc...
Here is my context: I have a language which has already been defined previously (resembles a little BASIC language). I am using the Visual Studio 2008 shell with SDK to create add-ins and VSpackages. This add-in or VSPackage should be a language container for my language, so I will have a tabbed document opened in the IDE of VS2008 where inside I will probably drop the SyntaxEditor control as my language programming container. The compiler has already been created in previous versions of the software, so I guess I won't have to worry about the execution part too much, but nevertheless, I need to give the code a C# like feel and look (collapsing code segments, intelliprompt, color coding, outlining etc...) I saw that your tools give the possibility to do this very nicely.
The Dynamic Language approach examples I saw are pretty basic with color coding only on certain patterns of text entered (like the FTP example in your documentation).
For the advanced programmatic lexical parser, your documentation gives a good example with the "Simple" language that you have developed and given to everyone to use as reference.
I was wondering, should I use the Dynamic Language approach in order to get up and running quickly or should I use the more advanced programmatic lexical parser approach?
Can you please guide me in determining which is the best approach? I have a feeling I will need to develop a programmatic lexical parser, yet I find the "Simple" example a bit complicated. Can I find more help on how to use that example constructively and effectively? The thing I am doing right now is trying to change the grammar XML definition file for the "Simple" example and adapt it to my language so that I can then generate a SemanticParser for my own language. Yet, there are other classes in the SimpleAddon folder to consider (SimpleRecursiveDescentLexicalParser.cs, SimpleLexicalParser.cs, SimpleSyntaxLanguage.cs etc..) + classes in the AST folder to consider (Expression.cs, BlockStatement.cs, etc...). Which classes should I be modifying and which ones I should not be modifying, I have a hard time seeing the big picture since I find the dependencies a bit overwhelming. Is this more of an advanced programmers job? Or can a beginner with comfortable knowledge in C# but not that much experience do this?
Sorry for the long question, but these are my concerns
Regards Nassim
[Modified at 01/07/2009 10:45 AM]
Here is my context: I have a language which has already been defined previously (resembles a little BASIC language). I am using the Visual Studio 2008 shell with SDK to create add-ins and VSpackages. This add-in or VSPackage should be a language container for my language, so I will have a tabbed document opened in the IDE of VS2008 where inside I will probably drop the SyntaxEditor control as my language programming container. The compiler has already been created in previous versions of the software, so I guess I won't have to worry about the execution part too much, but nevertheless, I need to give the code a C# like feel and look (collapsing code segments, intelliprompt, color coding, outlining etc...) I saw that your tools give the possibility to do this very nicely.
The Dynamic Language approach examples I saw are pretty basic with color coding only on certain patterns of text entered (like the FTP example in your documentation).
For the advanced programmatic lexical parser, your documentation gives a good example with the "Simple" language that you have developed and given to everyone to use as reference.
I was wondering, should I use the Dynamic Language approach in order to get up and running quickly or should I use the more advanced programmatic lexical parser approach?
Can you please guide me in determining which is the best approach? I have a feeling I will need to develop a programmatic lexical parser, yet I find the "Simple" example a bit complicated. Can I find more help on how to use that example constructively and effectively? The thing I am doing right now is trying to change the grammar XML definition file for the "Simple" example and adapt it to my language so that I can then generate a SemanticParser for my own language. Yet, there are other classes in the SimpleAddon folder to consider (SimpleRecursiveDescentLexicalParser.cs, SimpleLexicalParser.cs, SimpleSyntaxLanguage.cs etc..) + classes in the AST folder to consider (Expression.cs, BlockStatement.cs, etc...). Which classes should I be modifying and which ones I should not be modifying, I have a hard time seeing the big picture since I find the dependencies a bit overwhelming. Is this more of an advanced programmers job? Or can a beginner with comfortable knowledge in C# but not that much experience do this?
Sorry for the long question, but these are my concerns
Regards Nassim
[Modified at 01/07/2009 10:45 AM]
