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| <title>Kaleidoscope: Implementing a Parser and AST</title> |
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| <meta name="author" content="Chris Lattner"> |
| <meta name="author" content="Erick Tryzelaar"> |
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| <h1>Kaleidoscope: Implementing a Parser and AST</h1> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="index.html">Up to Tutorial Index</a></li> |
| <li>Chapter 2 |
| <ol> |
| <li><a href="#intro">Chapter 2 Introduction</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#ast">The Abstract Syntax Tree (AST)</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#parserbasics">Parser Basics</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#parserprimexprs">Basic Expression Parsing</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#parserbinops">Binary Expression Parsing</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#parsertop">Parsing the Rest</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#driver">The Driver</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#conclusions">Conclusions</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#code">Full Code Listing</a></li> |
| </ol> |
| </li> |
| <li><a href="OCamlLangImpl3.html">Chapter 3</a>: Code generation to LLVM IR</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <div class="doc_author"> |
| <p> |
| Written by <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a> |
| and <a href="mailto:idadesub@users.sourceforge.net">Erick Tryzelaar</a> |
| </p> |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <h2><a name="intro">Chapter 2 Introduction</a></h2> |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <p>Welcome to Chapter 2 of the "<a href="index.html">Implementing a language |
| with LLVM in Objective Caml</a>" tutorial. This chapter shows you how to use |
| the lexer, built in <a href="OCamlLangImpl1.html">Chapter 1</a>, to build a |
| full <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing">parser</a> for our |
| Kaleidoscope language. Once we have a parser, we'll define and build an <a |
| href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_syntax_tree">Abstract Syntax |
| Tree</a> (AST).</p> |
| |
| <p>The parser we will build uses a combination of <a |
| href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursive_descent_parser">Recursive Descent |
| Parsing</a> and <a href= |
| "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operator-precedence_parser">Operator-Precedence |
| Parsing</a> to parse the Kaleidoscope language (the latter for |
| binary expressions and the former for everything else). Before we get to |
| parsing though, lets talk about the output of the parser: the Abstract Syntax |
| Tree.</p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <h2><a name="ast">The Abstract Syntax Tree (AST)</a></h2> |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <p>The AST for a program captures its behavior in such a way that it is easy for |
| later stages of the compiler (e.g. code generation) to interpret. We basically |
| want one object for each construct in the language, and the AST should closely |
| model the language. In Kaleidoscope, we have expressions, a prototype, and a |
| function object. We'll start with expressions first:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* expr - Base type for all expression nodes. *) |
| type expr = |
| (* variant for numeric literals like "1.0". *) |
| | Number of float |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>The code above shows the definition of the base ExprAST class and one |
| subclass which we use for numeric literals. The important thing to note about |
| this code is that the Number variant captures the numeric value of the |
| literal as an instance variable. This allows later phases of the compiler to |
| know what the stored numeric value is.</p> |
| |
| <p>Right now we only create the AST, so there are no useful functions on |
| them. It would be very easy to add a function to pretty print the code, |
| for example. Here are the other expression AST node definitions that we'll use |
| in the basic form of the Kaleidoscope language: |
| </p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* variant for referencing a variable, like "a". *) |
| | Variable of string |
| |
| (* variant for a binary operator. *) |
| | Binary of char * expr * expr |
| |
| (* variant for function calls. *) |
| | Call of string * expr array |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>This is all (intentionally) rather straight-forward: variables capture the |
| variable name, binary operators capture their opcode (e.g. '+'), and calls |
| capture a function name as well as a list of any argument expressions. One thing |
| that is nice about our AST is that it captures the language features without |
| talking about the syntax of the language. Note that there is no discussion about |
| precedence of binary operators, lexical structure, etc.</p> |
| |
| <p>For our basic language, these are all of the expression nodes we'll define. |
| Because it doesn't have conditional control flow, it isn't Turing-complete; |
| we'll fix that in a later installment. The two things we need next are a way |
| to talk about the interface to a function, and a way to talk about functions |
| themselves:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* proto - This type represents the "prototype" for a function, which captures |
| * its name, and its argument names (thus implicitly the number of arguments the |
| * function takes). *) |
| type proto = Prototype of string * string array |
| |
| (* func - This type represents a function definition itself. *) |
| type func = Function of proto * expr |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>In Kaleidoscope, functions are typed with just a count of their arguments. |
| Since all values are double precision floating point, the type of each argument |
| doesn't need to be stored anywhere. In a more aggressive and realistic |
| language, the "expr" variants would probably have a type field.</p> |
| |
| <p>With this scaffolding, we can now talk about parsing expressions and function |
| bodies in Kaleidoscope.</p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <h2><a name="parserbasics">Parser Basics</a></h2> |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <p>Now that we have an AST to build, we need to define the parser code to build |
| it. The idea here is that we want to parse something like "x+y" (which is |
| returned as three tokens by the lexer) into an AST that could be generated with |
| calls like this:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| let x = Variable "x" in |
| let y = Variable "y" in |
| let result = Binary ('+', x, y) in |
| ... |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p> |
| The error handling routines make use of the builtin <tt>Stream.Failure</tt> and |
| <tt>Stream.Error</tt>s. <tt>Stream.Failure</tt> is raised when the parser is |
| unable to find any matching token in the first position of a pattern. |
| <tt>Stream.Error</tt> is raised when the first token matches, but the rest do |
| not. The error recovery in our parser will not be the best and is not |
| particular user-friendly, but it will be enough for our tutorial. These |
| exceptions make it easier to handle errors in routines that have various return |
| types.</p> |
| |
| <p>With these basic types and exceptions, we can implement the first |
| piece of our grammar: numeric literals.</p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <h2><a name="parserprimexprs">Basic Expression Parsing</a></h2> |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <p>We start with numeric literals, because they are the simplest to process. |
| For each production in our grammar, we'll define a function which parses that |
| production. We call this class of expressions "primary" expressions, for |
| reasons that will become more clear <a href="OCamlLangImpl6.html#unary"> |
| later in the tutorial</a>. In order to parse an arbitrary primary expression, |
| we need to determine what sort of expression it is. For numeric literals, we |
| have:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* primary |
| * ::= identifier |
| * ::= numberexpr |
| * ::= parenexpr *) |
| parse_primary = parser |
| (* numberexpr ::= number *) |
| | [< 'Token.Number n >] -> Ast.Number n |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>This routine is very simple: it expects to be called when the current token |
| is a <tt>Token.Number</tt> token. It takes the current number value, creates |
| a <tt>Ast.Number</tt> node, advances the lexer to the next token, and finally |
| returns.</p> |
| |
| <p>There are some interesting aspects to this. The most important one is that |
| this routine eats all of the tokens that correspond to the production and |
| returns the lexer buffer with the next token (which is not part of the grammar |
| production) ready to go. This is a fairly standard way to go for recursive |
| descent parsers. For a better example, the parenthesis operator is defined like |
| this:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* parenexpr ::= '(' expression ')' *) |
| | [< 'Token.Kwd '('; e=parse_expr; 'Token.Kwd ')' ?? "expected ')'" >] -> e |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>This function illustrates a number of interesting things about the |
| parser:</p> |
| |
| <p> |
| 1) It shows how we use the <tt>Stream.Error</tt> exception. When called, this |
| function expects that the current token is a '(' token, but after parsing the |
| subexpression, it is possible that there is no ')' waiting. For example, if |
| the user types in "(4 x" instead of "(4)", the parser should emit an error. |
| Because errors can occur, the parser needs a way to indicate that they |
| happened. In our parser, we use the camlp4 shortcut syntax <tt>token ?? "parse |
| error"</tt>, where if the token before the <tt>??</tt> does not match, then |
| <tt>Stream.Error "parse error"</tt> will be raised.</p> |
| |
| <p>2) Another interesting aspect of this function is that it uses recursion by |
| calling <tt>Parser.parse_primary</tt> (we will soon see that |
| <tt>Parser.parse_primary</tt> can call <tt>Parser.parse_primary</tt>). This is |
| powerful because it allows us to handle recursive grammars, and keeps each |
| production very simple. Note that parentheses do not cause construction of AST |
| nodes themselves. While we could do it this way, the most important role of |
| parentheses are to guide the parser and provide grouping. Once the parser |
| constructs the AST, parentheses are not needed.</p> |
| |
| <p>The next simple production is for handling variable references and function |
| calls:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* identifierexpr |
| * ::= identifier |
| * ::= identifier '(' argumentexpr ')' *) |
| | [< 'Token.Ident id; stream >] -> |
| let rec parse_args accumulator = parser |
| | [< e=parse_expr; stream >] -> |
| begin parser |
| | [< 'Token.Kwd ','; e=parse_args (e :: accumulator) >] -> e |
| | [< >] -> e :: accumulator |
| end stream |
| | [< >] -> accumulator |
| in |
| let rec parse_ident id = parser |
| (* Call. *) |
| | [< 'Token.Kwd '('; |
| args=parse_args []; |
| 'Token.Kwd ')' ?? "expected ')'">] -> |
| Ast.Call (id, Array.of_list (List.rev args)) |
| |
| (* Simple variable ref. *) |
| | [< >] -> Ast.Variable id |
| in |
| parse_ident id stream |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>This routine follows the same style as the other routines. (It expects to be |
| called if the current token is a <tt>Token.Ident</tt> token). It also has |
| recursion and error handling. One interesting aspect of this is that it uses |
| <em>look-ahead</em> to determine if the current identifier is a stand alone |
| variable reference or if it is a function call expression. It handles this by |
| checking to see if the token after the identifier is a '(' token, constructing |
| either a <tt>Ast.Variable</tt> or <tt>Ast.Call</tt> node as appropriate. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p>We finish up by raising an exception if we received a token we didn't |
| expect:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| | [< >] -> raise (Stream.Error "unknown token when expecting an expression.") |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>Now that basic expressions are handled, we need to handle binary expressions. |
| They are a bit more complex.</p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <h2><a name="parserbinops">Binary Expression Parsing</a></h2> |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <p>Binary expressions are significantly harder to parse because they are often |
| ambiguous. For example, when given the string "x+y*z", the parser can choose |
| to parse it as either "(x+y)*z" or "x+(y*z)". With common definitions from |
| mathematics, we expect the later parse, because "*" (multiplication) has |
| higher <em>precedence</em> than "+" (addition).</p> |
| |
| <p>There are many ways to handle this, but an elegant and efficient way is to |
| use <a href= |
| "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operator-precedence_parser">Operator-Precedence |
| Parsing</a>. This parsing technique uses the precedence of binary operators to |
| guide recursion. To start with, we need a table of precedences:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* binop_precedence - This holds the precedence for each binary operator that is |
| * defined *) |
| let binop_precedence:(char, int) Hashtbl.t = Hashtbl.create 10 |
| |
| (* precedence - Get the precedence of the pending binary operator token. *) |
| let precedence c = try Hashtbl.find binop_precedence c with Not_found -> -1 |
| |
| ... |
| |
| let main () = |
| (* Install standard binary operators. |
| * 1 is the lowest precedence. *) |
| Hashtbl.add Parser.binop_precedence '<' 10; |
| Hashtbl.add Parser.binop_precedence '+' 20; |
| Hashtbl.add Parser.binop_precedence '-' 20; |
| Hashtbl.add Parser.binop_precedence '*' 40; (* highest. *) |
| ... |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>For the basic form of Kaleidoscope, we will only support 4 binary operators |
| (this can obviously be extended by you, our brave and intrepid reader). The |
| <tt>Parser.precedence</tt> function returns the precedence for the current |
| token, or -1 if the token is not a binary operator. Having a <tt>Hashtbl.t</tt> |
| makes it easy to add new operators and makes it clear that the algorithm doesn't |
| depend on the specific operators involved, but it would be easy enough to |
| eliminate the <tt>Hashtbl.t</tt> and do the comparisons in the |
| <tt>Parser.precedence</tt> function. (Or just use a fixed-size array).</p> |
| |
| <p>With the helper above defined, we can now start parsing binary expressions. |
| The basic idea of operator precedence parsing is to break down an expression |
| with potentially ambiguous binary operators into pieces. Consider ,for example, |
| the expression "a+b+(c+d)*e*f+g". Operator precedence parsing considers this |
| as a stream of primary expressions separated by binary operators. As such, |
| it will first parse the leading primary expression "a", then it will see the |
| pairs [+, b] [+, (c+d)] [*, e] [*, f] and [+, g]. Note that because parentheses |
| are primary expressions, the binary expression parser doesn't need to worry |
| about nested subexpressions like (c+d) at all. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| To start, an expression is a primary expression potentially followed by a |
| sequence of [binop,primaryexpr] pairs:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* expression |
| * ::= primary binoprhs *) |
| and parse_expr = parser |
| | [< lhs=parse_primary; stream >] -> parse_bin_rhs 0 lhs stream |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p><tt>Parser.parse_bin_rhs</tt> is the function that parses the sequence of |
| pairs for us. It takes a precedence and a pointer to an expression for the part |
| that has been parsed so far. Note that "x" is a perfectly valid expression: As |
| such, "binoprhs" is allowed to be empty, in which case it returns the expression |
| that is passed into it. In our example above, the code passes the expression for |
| "a" into <tt>Parser.parse_bin_rhs</tt> and the current token is "+".</p> |
| |
| <p>The precedence value passed into <tt>Parser.parse_bin_rhs</tt> indicates the |
| <em>minimal operator precedence</em> that the function is allowed to eat. For |
| example, if the current pair stream is [+, x] and <tt>Parser.parse_bin_rhs</tt> |
| is passed in a precedence of 40, it will not consume any tokens (because the |
| precedence of '+' is only 20). With this in mind, <tt>Parser.parse_bin_rhs</tt> |
| starts with:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* binoprhs |
| * ::= ('+' primary)* *) |
| and parse_bin_rhs expr_prec lhs stream = |
| match Stream.peek stream with |
| (* If this is a binop, find its precedence. *) |
| | Some (Token.Kwd c) when Hashtbl.mem binop_precedence c -> |
| let token_prec = precedence c in |
| |
| (* If this is a binop that binds at least as tightly as the current binop, |
| * consume it, otherwise we are done. *) |
| if token_prec < expr_prec then lhs else begin |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>This code gets the precedence of the current token and checks to see if if is |
| too low. Because we defined invalid tokens to have a precedence of -1, this |
| check implicitly knows that the pair-stream ends when the token stream runs out |
| of binary operators. If this check succeeds, we know that the token is a binary |
| operator and that it will be included in this expression:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* Eat the binop. *) |
| Stream.junk stream; |
| |
| (* Okay, we know this is a binop. *) |
| let rhs = |
| match Stream.peek stream with |
| | Some (Token.Kwd c2) -> |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>As such, this code eats (and remembers) the binary operator and then parses |
| the primary expression that follows. This builds up the whole pair, the first of |
| which is [+, b] for the running example.</p> |
| |
| <p>Now that we parsed the left-hand side of an expression and one pair of the |
| RHS sequence, we have to decide which way the expression associates. In |
| particular, we could have "(a+b) binop unparsed" or "a + (b binop unparsed)". |
| To determine this, we look ahead at "binop" to determine its precedence and |
| compare it to BinOp's precedence (which is '+' in this case):</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* If BinOp binds less tightly with rhs than the operator after |
| * rhs, let the pending operator take rhs as its lhs. *) |
| let next_prec = precedence c2 in |
| if token_prec < next_prec |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>If the precedence of the binop to the right of "RHS" is lower or equal to the |
| precedence of our current operator, then we know that the parentheses associate |
| as "(a+b) binop ...". In our example, the current operator is "+" and the next |
| operator is "+", we know that they have the same precedence. In this case we'll |
| create the AST node for "a+b", and then continue parsing:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| ... if body omitted ... |
| in |
| |
| (* Merge lhs/rhs. *) |
| let lhs = Ast.Binary (c, lhs, rhs) in |
| parse_bin_rhs expr_prec lhs stream |
| end |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>In our example above, this will turn "a+b+" into "(a+b)" and execute the next |
| iteration of the loop, with "+" as the current token. The code above will eat, |
| remember, and parse "(c+d)" as the primary expression, which makes the |
| current pair equal to [+, (c+d)]. It will then evaluate the 'if' conditional above with |
| "*" as the binop to the right of the primary. In this case, the precedence of "*" is |
| higher than the precedence of "+" so the if condition will be entered.</p> |
| |
| <p>The critical question left here is "how can the if condition parse the right |
| hand side in full"? In particular, to build the AST correctly for our example, |
| it needs to get all of "(c+d)*e*f" as the RHS expression variable. The code to |
| do this is surprisingly simple (code from the above two blocks duplicated for |
| context):</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| match Stream.peek stream with |
| | Some (Token.Kwd c2) -> |
| (* If BinOp binds less tightly with rhs than the operator after |
| * rhs, let the pending operator take rhs as its lhs. *) |
| if token_prec < precedence c2 |
| then <b>parse_bin_rhs (token_prec + 1) rhs stream</b> |
| else rhs |
| | _ -> rhs |
| in |
| |
| (* Merge lhs/rhs. *) |
| let lhs = Ast.Binary (c, lhs, rhs) in |
| parse_bin_rhs expr_prec lhs stream |
| end |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>At this point, we know that the binary operator to the RHS of our primary |
| has higher precedence than the binop we are currently parsing. As such, we know |
| that any sequence of pairs whose operators are all higher precedence than "+" |
| should be parsed together and returned as "RHS". To do this, we recursively |
| invoke the <tt>Parser.parse_bin_rhs</tt> function specifying "token_prec+1" as |
| the minimum precedence required for it to continue. In our example above, this |
| will cause it to return the AST node for "(c+d)*e*f" as RHS, which is then set |
| as the RHS of the '+' expression.</p> |
| |
| <p>Finally, on the next iteration of the while loop, the "+g" piece is parsed |
| and added to the AST. With this little bit of code (14 non-trivial lines), we |
| correctly handle fully general binary expression parsing in a very elegant way. |
| This was a whirlwind tour of this code, and it is somewhat subtle. I recommend |
| running through it with a few tough examples to see how it works. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p>This wraps up handling of expressions. At this point, we can point the |
| parser at an arbitrary token stream and build an expression from it, stopping |
| at the first token that is not part of the expression. Next up we need to |
| handle function definitions, etc.</p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <h2><a name="parsertop">Parsing the Rest</a></h2> |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <p> |
| The next thing missing is handling of function prototypes. In Kaleidoscope, |
| these are used both for 'extern' function declarations as well as function body |
| definitions. The code to do this is straight-forward and not very interesting |
| (once you've survived expressions): |
| </p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* prototype |
| * ::= id '(' id* ')' *) |
| let parse_prototype = |
| let rec parse_args accumulator = parser |
| | [< 'Token.Ident id; e=parse_args (id::accumulator) >] -> e |
| | [< >] -> accumulator |
| in |
| |
| parser |
| | [< 'Token.Ident id; |
| 'Token.Kwd '(' ?? "expected '(' in prototype"; |
| args=parse_args []; |
| 'Token.Kwd ')' ?? "expected ')' in prototype" >] -> |
| (* success. *) |
| Ast.Prototype (id, Array.of_list (List.rev args)) |
| |
| | [< >] -> |
| raise (Stream.Error "expected function name in prototype") |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>Given this, a function definition is very simple, just a prototype plus |
| an expression to implement the body:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* definition ::= 'def' prototype expression *) |
| let parse_definition = parser |
| | [< 'Token.Def; p=parse_prototype; e=parse_expr >] -> |
| Ast.Function (p, e) |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>In addition, we support 'extern' to declare functions like 'sin' and 'cos' as |
| well as to support forward declaration of user functions. These 'extern's are just |
| prototypes with no body:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* external ::= 'extern' prototype *) |
| let parse_extern = parser |
| | [< 'Token.Extern; e=parse_prototype >] -> e |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>Finally, we'll also let the user type in arbitrary top-level expressions and |
| evaluate them on the fly. We will handle this by defining anonymous nullary |
| (zero argument) functions for them:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* toplevelexpr ::= expression *) |
| let parse_toplevel = parser |
| | [< e=parse_expr >] -> |
| (* Make an anonymous proto. *) |
| Ast.Function (Ast.Prototype ("", [||]), e) |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>Now that we have all the pieces, let's build a little driver that will let us |
| actually <em>execute</em> this code we've built!</p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <h2><a name="driver">The Driver</a></h2> |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <p>The driver for this simply invokes all of the parsing pieces with a top-level |
| dispatch loop. There isn't much interesting here, so I'll just include the |
| top-level loop. See <a href="#code">below</a> for full code in the "Top-Level |
| Parsing" section.</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (* top ::= definition | external | expression | ';' *) |
| let rec main_loop stream = |
| match Stream.peek stream with |
| | None -> () |
| |
| (* ignore top-level semicolons. *) |
| | Some (Token.Kwd ';') -> |
| Stream.junk stream; |
| main_loop stream |
| |
| | Some token -> |
| begin |
| try match token with |
| | Token.Def -> |
| ignore(Parser.parse_definition stream); |
| print_endline "parsed a function definition."; |
| | Token.Extern -> |
| ignore(Parser.parse_extern stream); |
| print_endline "parsed an extern."; |
| | _ -> |
| (* Evaluate a top-level expression into an anonymous function. *) |
| ignore(Parser.parse_toplevel stream); |
| print_endline "parsed a top-level expr"; |
| with Stream.Error s -> |
| (* Skip token for error recovery. *) |
| Stream.junk stream; |
| print_endline s; |
| end; |
| print_string "ready> "; flush stdout; |
| main_loop stream |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>The most interesting part of this is that we ignore top-level semicolons. |
| Why is this, you ask? The basic reason is that if you type "4 + 5" at the |
| command line, the parser doesn't know whether that is the end of what you will type |
| or not. For example, on the next line you could type "def foo..." in which case |
| 4+5 is the end of a top-level expression. Alternatively you could type "* 6", |
| which would continue the expression. Having top-level semicolons allows you to |
| type "4+5;", and the parser will know you are done.</p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <h2><a name="conclusions">Conclusions</a></h2> |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <p>With just under 300 lines of commented code (240 lines of non-comment, |
| non-blank code), we fully defined our minimal language, including a lexer, |
| parser, and AST builder. With this done, the executable will validate |
| Kaleidoscope code and tell us if it is grammatically invalid. For |
| example, here is a sample interaction:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| $ <b>./toy.byte</b> |
| ready> <b>def foo(x y) x+foo(y, 4.0);</b> |
| Parsed a function definition. |
| ready> <b>def foo(x y) x+y y;</b> |
| Parsed a function definition. |
| Parsed a top-level expr |
| ready> <b>def foo(x y) x+y );</b> |
| Parsed a function definition. |
| Error: unknown token when expecting an expression |
| ready> <b>extern sin(a);</b> |
| ready> Parsed an extern |
| ready> <b>^D</b> |
| $ |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>There is a lot of room for extension here. You can define new AST nodes, |
| extend the language in many ways, etc. In the <a href="OCamlLangImpl3.html"> |
| next installment</a>, we will describe how to generate LLVM Intermediate |
| Representation (IR) from the AST.</p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <h2><a name="code">Full Code Listing</a></h2> |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <p> |
| Here is the complete code listing for this and the previous chapter. |
| Note that it is fully self-contained: you don't need LLVM or any external |
| libraries at all for this. (Besides the ocaml standard libraries, of |
| course.) To build this, just compile with:</p> |
| |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| # Compile |
| ocamlbuild toy.byte |
| # Run |
| ./toy.byte |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>Here is the code:</p> |
| |
| <dl> |
| <dt>_tags:</dt> |
| <dd class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| <{lexer,parser}.ml>: use_camlp4, pp(camlp4of) |
| </pre> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>token.ml:</dt> |
| <dd class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (*===----------------------------------------------------------------------=== |
| * Lexer Tokens |
| *===----------------------------------------------------------------------===*) |
| |
| (* The lexer returns these 'Kwd' if it is an unknown character, otherwise one of |
| * these others for known things. *) |
| type token = |
| (* commands *) |
| | Def | Extern |
| |
| (* primary *) |
| | Ident of string | Number of float |
| |
| (* unknown *) |
| | Kwd of char |
| </pre> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>lexer.ml:</dt> |
| <dd class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (*===----------------------------------------------------------------------=== |
| * Lexer |
| *===----------------------------------------------------------------------===*) |
| |
| let rec lex = parser |
| (* Skip any whitespace. *) |
| | [< ' (' ' | '\n' | '\r' | '\t'); stream >] -> lex stream |
| |
| (* identifier: [a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9] *) |
| | [< ' ('A' .. 'Z' | 'a' .. 'z' as c); stream >] -> |
| let buffer = Buffer.create 1 in |
| Buffer.add_char buffer c; |
| lex_ident buffer stream |
| |
| (* number: [0-9.]+ *) |
| | [< ' ('0' .. '9' as c); stream >] -> |
| let buffer = Buffer.create 1 in |
| Buffer.add_char buffer c; |
| lex_number buffer stream |
| |
| (* Comment until end of line. *) |
| | [< ' ('#'); stream >] -> |
| lex_comment stream |
| |
| (* Otherwise, just return the character as its ascii value. *) |
| | [< 'c; stream >] -> |
| [< 'Token.Kwd c; lex stream >] |
| |
| (* end of stream. *) |
| | [< >] -> [< >] |
| |
| and lex_number buffer = parser |
| | [< ' ('0' .. '9' | '.' as c); stream >] -> |
| Buffer.add_char buffer c; |
| lex_number buffer stream |
| | [< stream=lex >] -> |
| [< 'Token.Number (float_of_string (Buffer.contents buffer)); stream >] |
| |
| and lex_ident buffer = parser |
| | [< ' ('A' .. 'Z' | 'a' .. 'z' | '0' .. '9' as c); stream >] -> |
| Buffer.add_char buffer c; |
| lex_ident buffer stream |
| | [< stream=lex >] -> |
| match Buffer.contents buffer with |
| | "def" -> [< 'Token.Def; stream >] |
| | "extern" -> [< 'Token.Extern; stream >] |
| | id -> [< 'Token.Ident id; stream >] |
| |
| and lex_comment = parser |
| | [< ' ('\n'); stream=lex >] -> stream |
| | [< 'c; e=lex_comment >] -> e |
| | [< >] -> [< >] |
| </pre> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>ast.ml:</dt> |
| <dd class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (*===----------------------------------------------------------------------=== |
| * Abstract Syntax Tree (aka Parse Tree) |
| *===----------------------------------------------------------------------===*) |
| |
| (* expr - Base type for all expression nodes. *) |
| type expr = |
| (* variant for numeric literals like "1.0". *) |
| | Number of float |
| |
| (* variant for referencing a variable, like "a". *) |
| | Variable of string |
| |
| (* variant for a binary operator. *) |
| | Binary of char * expr * expr |
| |
| (* variant for function calls. *) |
| | Call of string * expr array |
| |
| (* proto - This type represents the "prototype" for a function, which captures |
| * its name, and its argument names (thus implicitly the number of arguments the |
| * function takes). *) |
| type proto = Prototype of string * string array |
| |
| (* func - This type represents a function definition itself. *) |
| type func = Function of proto * expr |
| </pre> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>parser.ml:</dt> |
| <dd class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (*===---------------------------------------------------------------------=== |
| * Parser |
| *===---------------------------------------------------------------------===*) |
| |
| (* binop_precedence - This holds the precedence for each binary operator that is |
| * defined *) |
| let binop_precedence:(char, int) Hashtbl.t = Hashtbl.create 10 |
| |
| (* precedence - Get the precedence of the pending binary operator token. *) |
| let precedence c = try Hashtbl.find binop_precedence c with Not_found -> -1 |
| |
| (* primary |
| * ::= identifier |
| * ::= numberexpr |
| * ::= parenexpr *) |
| let rec parse_primary = parser |
| (* numberexpr ::= number *) |
| | [< 'Token.Number n >] -> Ast.Number n |
| |
| (* parenexpr ::= '(' expression ')' *) |
| | [< 'Token.Kwd '('; e=parse_expr; 'Token.Kwd ')' ?? "expected ')'" >] -> e |
| |
| (* identifierexpr |
| * ::= identifier |
| * ::= identifier '(' argumentexpr ')' *) |
| | [< 'Token.Ident id; stream >] -> |
| let rec parse_args accumulator = parser |
| | [< e=parse_expr; stream >] -> |
| begin parser |
| | [< 'Token.Kwd ','; e=parse_args (e :: accumulator) >] -> e |
| | [< >] -> e :: accumulator |
| end stream |
| | [< >] -> accumulator |
| in |
| let rec parse_ident id = parser |
| (* Call. *) |
| | [< 'Token.Kwd '('; |
| args=parse_args []; |
| 'Token.Kwd ')' ?? "expected ')'">] -> |
| Ast.Call (id, Array.of_list (List.rev args)) |
| |
| (* Simple variable ref. *) |
| | [< >] -> Ast.Variable id |
| in |
| parse_ident id stream |
| |
| | [< >] -> raise (Stream.Error "unknown token when expecting an expression.") |
| |
| (* binoprhs |
| * ::= ('+' primary)* *) |
| and parse_bin_rhs expr_prec lhs stream = |
| match Stream.peek stream with |
| (* If this is a binop, find its precedence. *) |
| | Some (Token.Kwd c) when Hashtbl.mem binop_precedence c -> |
| let token_prec = precedence c in |
| |
| (* If this is a binop that binds at least as tightly as the current binop, |
| * consume it, otherwise we are done. *) |
| if token_prec < expr_prec then lhs else begin |
| (* Eat the binop. *) |
| Stream.junk stream; |
| |
| (* Parse the primary expression after the binary operator. *) |
| let rhs = parse_primary stream in |
| |
| (* Okay, we know this is a binop. *) |
| let rhs = |
| match Stream.peek stream with |
| | Some (Token.Kwd c2) -> |
| (* If BinOp binds less tightly with rhs than the operator after |
| * rhs, let the pending operator take rhs as its lhs. *) |
| let next_prec = precedence c2 in |
| if token_prec < next_prec |
| then parse_bin_rhs (token_prec + 1) rhs stream |
| else rhs |
| | _ -> rhs |
| in |
| |
| (* Merge lhs/rhs. *) |
| let lhs = Ast.Binary (c, lhs, rhs) in |
| parse_bin_rhs expr_prec lhs stream |
| end |
| | _ -> lhs |
| |
| (* expression |
| * ::= primary binoprhs *) |
| and parse_expr = parser |
| | [< lhs=parse_primary; stream >] -> parse_bin_rhs 0 lhs stream |
| |
| (* prototype |
| * ::= id '(' id* ')' *) |
| let parse_prototype = |
| let rec parse_args accumulator = parser |
| | [< 'Token.Ident id; e=parse_args (id::accumulator) >] -> e |
| | [< >] -> accumulator |
| in |
| |
| parser |
| | [< 'Token.Ident id; |
| 'Token.Kwd '(' ?? "expected '(' in prototype"; |
| args=parse_args []; |
| 'Token.Kwd ')' ?? "expected ')' in prototype" >] -> |
| (* success. *) |
| Ast.Prototype (id, Array.of_list (List.rev args)) |
| |
| | [< >] -> |
| raise (Stream.Error "expected function name in prototype") |
| |
| (* definition ::= 'def' prototype expression *) |
| let parse_definition = parser |
| | [< 'Token.Def; p=parse_prototype; e=parse_expr >] -> |
| Ast.Function (p, e) |
| |
| (* toplevelexpr ::= expression *) |
| let parse_toplevel = parser |
| | [< e=parse_expr >] -> |
| (* Make an anonymous proto. *) |
| Ast.Function (Ast.Prototype ("", [||]), e) |
| |
| (* external ::= 'extern' prototype *) |
| let parse_extern = parser |
| | [< 'Token.Extern; e=parse_prototype >] -> e |
| </pre> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>toplevel.ml:</dt> |
| <dd class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (*===----------------------------------------------------------------------=== |
| * Top-Level parsing and JIT Driver |
| *===----------------------------------------------------------------------===*) |
| |
| (* top ::= definition | external | expression | ';' *) |
| let rec main_loop stream = |
| match Stream.peek stream with |
| | None -> () |
| |
| (* ignore top-level semicolons. *) |
| | Some (Token.Kwd ';') -> |
| Stream.junk stream; |
| main_loop stream |
| |
| | Some token -> |
| begin |
| try match token with |
| | Token.Def -> |
| ignore(Parser.parse_definition stream); |
| print_endline "parsed a function definition."; |
| | Token.Extern -> |
| ignore(Parser.parse_extern stream); |
| print_endline "parsed an extern."; |
| | _ -> |
| (* Evaluate a top-level expression into an anonymous function. *) |
| ignore(Parser.parse_toplevel stream); |
| print_endline "parsed a top-level expr"; |
| with Stream.Error s -> |
| (* Skip token for error recovery. *) |
| Stream.junk stream; |
| print_endline s; |
| end; |
| print_string "ready> "; flush stdout; |
| main_loop stream |
| </pre> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>toy.ml:</dt> |
| <dd class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| (*===----------------------------------------------------------------------=== |
| * Main driver code. |
| *===----------------------------------------------------------------------===*) |
| |
| let main () = |
| (* Install standard binary operators. |
| * 1 is the lowest precedence. *) |
| Hashtbl.add Parser.binop_precedence '<' 10; |
| Hashtbl.add Parser.binop_precedence '+' 20; |
| Hashtbl.add Parser.binop_precedence '-' 20; |
| Hashtbl.add Parser.binop_precedence '*' 40; (* highest. *) |
| |
| (* Prime the first token. *) |
| print_string "ready> "; flush stdout; |
| let stream = Lexer.lex (Stream.of_channel stdin) in |
| |
| (* Run the main "interpreter loop" now. *) |
| Toplevel.main_loop stream; |
| ;; |
| |
| main () |
| </pre> |
| </dd> |
| </dl> |
| |
| <a href="OCamlLangImpl3.html">Next: Implementing Code Generation to LLVM IR</a> |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <hr> |
| <address> |
| <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img |
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| |
| <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a> |
| <a href="mailto:erickt@users.sourceforge.net">Erick Tryzelaar</a><br> |
| <a href="http://llvm.org/">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br> |
| Last modified: $Date: 2011-04-22 20:30:22 -0400 (Fri, 22 Apr 2011) $ |
| </address> |
| </body> |
| </html> |