What's ANTLR
ANTLR, ANother Tool for Language Recognition, (formerly PCCTS)
is a language tool that provides a framework for constructing recognizers, compilers, and
translators from grammatical descriptions containing Java, C++, or C# actions [You can use
PCCTS 1.xx to generate C-based parsers].
Computer language translation has become a common task. While
compilers and tools for traditional computer languages (such as C or Java) are still being
built, their number is dwarfed by the thousands of mini-languages for which recognizers
and translators are being developed. Programmers construct translators for database
formats, graphical data files (e.g., PostScript, AutoCAD), text processing files (e.g.,
HTML, SGML). ANTLR is designed to handle all of your translation tasks.
Terence
Parr has been working on ANTLR since 1989 and, together with his colleagues, has made
a number of fundamental contributions
to parsing theory and language tool construction,
leading to the resurgence of LL(k)-based recognition tools.
Here is a chronological history
and credit list for ANTLR/PCCTS.
See ANTLR software rights.