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.TH sid 1

.SH NAME

sid \- Syntax Improving Device; parser generator.

.SH SYNTAX

.LP

.B sid

[\fIoption\fR]... \fIfile\fR...

.SH DESCRIPTION

.LP

The

.B sid

command is used to turn descriptions of a language into a program for

recognising that language.  This manual page details the command line

syntax; for more information, consult the

.B sid

user documentation.  The number of files specified on the command line

varies depending upon the output language.  The description of the

\fB\-\-language\fR option specifies the number of files for each language.

.SH SWITCHES

.LP

The new version of

.B sid

accepts both short form and long form command line switches.

.LP

Short form switches are single characters, and begin with a \&'-' or \&'+'

character.  They can be concatentated into a single command line word, e.g.:

.IP

\fB\-vdl\fR \fIdump-file\fR \fIlanguage-name\fR

.LP

which contains three different switches (\fB\-v\fR, which takes no

arguments; \fB\-d\fR, which takes one argument: \fIdump-file\fR; and

\fB\-l\fR, which takes one argument: \fIlanguage-name\fR).

.LP

Long form switches are strings, and begin with \&'--' or \&'++'.  With long

form switches, only the shortest unique prefix need be entered.  The long

form of the above example would be:

.IP

\fB\-\-version\fR \fB\-\-dump\-file\fR \fIdump-file\fR

\fB\-\-language\fR \fIlanguage\-name\fR

.LP

In most cases the arguments to the switch should follow the switch as a

separate word.  In the case of short form switches, the arguments to the

short form switches in a single word should follow the word in the order of

the switches (as in the first example).  For some options, the argument may

be part of the same word as the switch (such options are shown without a

space between the switch and the argument in the switch summaries below).

In the case of short form switches, such a switch would terminate any

concatentation of switches (either a character would follow it, which would

be treated as its argument, or it would be the end of the word, and its

argument would follow as normal).

.LP

For binary switches, the \&'-' or \&'--' switch prefixes set (enable) the

switch, and the \&'+' or \&'++' switch prefixes reset (disable) the switch.

This is probably back to front, but is in keeping with other programs. The

switches \&'--' or \&'++' by themselves terminate option parsing.

.SH ERROR FILE SYNTAX

.LP

It is possible to change the error messages that

.B sid

uses.  In order to do this, make the environment variable

\fISID_ERROR_FILE\fR contain the name of a file with the new error messages

in.

.LP

The error file consists of zero or more sections.  Each section begins

with a section marker (one of \fB%prefix%\fR, \fB%errors%\fR or

\fB%strings%\fR).  The prefix section takes a single string (this is to

be the prefix for all error messages).  The other sections take zero or

more pairs of names and strings.  A name is a sequence of characters

surrounded by single quotes.  A string is a sequence of characters

surrounded by double quotes.  In the case of the prefix and error

sections, the strings may contain variables of the form \fB${\fIvariable

name\fB}\fR.  These variables will be replaced by suitable information

when the error occurs.  The backslash character can be used to escape

characters.  The following C style escape sequences are recognized:

\&'\fB\\n\fR', \&'\fB\\r\fR', \&'\fB\\t\fR', \&'\fB\\0\fR'.  Also, the

sequence \&'\fB\\x\fINN\fR' represents the character with code \fINN\fR

in hex.  The hash character acts as a comment to end of line character.

.LP

The \fB\-\-show\-errors\fR option may be used to get a copy of the current

error messages.

.SH OPTIONS

.LP

.B sid

accepts the following command line options:

.LP

\fB\-\-dump\-file\fR \fIFILE\fR

.br

\fB\-d\fR \fIFILE\fR

.IP

This option causes intermediate dumps of the grammar to be

written to the file \fIFILE\fR.

.LP

\fB\-\-factor\-limit\fR \fILIMIT\fR

.br

\fB\-f\fR \fILIMIT\fR

.IP

This option limits the number of rules that can be created during the

factorisation process.  It is probably best not to change this.

.LP

\fB\-\-help\fR

.br

\fB\-?\fR

.IP

Write an option summary to the standard error.

.LP

\fB\-\-inline\fR \fIINLINES\fR

.br

\fB\-i\fR \fIINLINES\fR

.IP

This option controls what inlining will be done in the output parser.

The inlines argument should be a comma seperated list of the following

words:

.RS 1i

.IP SINGLES

This causes single alternative rules to be inlined.  This inlining is no

longer performed as a modification to the grammar (it was in version 1.0).

.IP BASICS

This causes rules that contain only basics (and no exception handlers or

empty alternatives) to be inlined.  The restriction on exception

handlers and empty alternatives is rather arbitrary, and may be changed

later.

.IP TAIL

This causes tail recursive calls to be inlined.  Without this, tail

recursion elimination will not be performed.

.IP OTHER

This causes other calls to be inlined wherever possible.  Unless the

"MULTI" inlining is also specified, this will be done only for

productions that are called once.

.IP MULTI

This causes calls to be inlined, even if the rule being called is called

more than once.  Turning this inlining on implies "OTHER".  Similarly

turning off "OTHER" inlining will turn off "MULTI" inlining.  For

grammars of any size, this is probably best avoided; if used the

generated parser may be huge (e.g. a C grammar has produced a file that

was several hundred MB in size).

.IP ALL

.br

This turns on all inlining.

.RE

.IP

In addition, prefixing a word with "NO" turns off that inlining

phase.  The words may be given in any case.  They are evaluated in

the order given, so:

.RS

.IP

\-inline noall,singles

.RE

.IP

would turn on single alternative rule inlining only, whilst:

.RS

.IP

\-inline singles,noall

.RE

.IP

would turn off all inlining.  The default is as if SID were invoked

with the option:

.RS

.IP

\-inline noall,basics,tail

.RE

.LP

\fB\-\-language\fR \fILANGUAGE\fR

.br

\fB\-l\fR \fILANGUAGE\fR

.IP

This option specifies the output language.  Currently this should be

either "ansi\-c", "pre\-ansi\-c", or "test".  The default is

"ansi\-c".

.IP

The "ansi\-c" and "pre\-ansi\-c" languages are basically the same.  The

only difference is that "ansi\-c" initially uses function prototypes,

and "pre\-ansi\-c" doesn't.  Each language takes two input files, a

grammar file and an actions file, and produces two output files, a C

source file containing the generated parser and a C header file containing

the external declarations for the parser.  The C language specific options

are:

.RS

prototypes

proto

no\-prototypes

no\-proto

.RS

These enable or disable the use of function prototypes.

.RE

split

split=\fINUMBER\fR

no\-split

.RS

These enable or disable the output file split option.  The generated

files can be very large even without inlining.  This option splits the

main output file into a number of components containing about \fINUMBER\fR

lines each (the default being 50000).  These components are distinguished

by successively substituting 1, 2, 3, ... for the character '@' in the

output file name.

.RE

numeric\-ids

numeric

no\-numeric\-ids

no\-numeric

.RS

These enable or disable the use of numeric identifiers.  Numeric

identifiers replace the identifier name with a number, which is mainly

of use in stopping identifier names getting too long.  The disadvantage

is that the code becomes less readable, and more difficult to debug.

Numeric identifiers are not used by default and are never used for

terminal numbers.

.RE

casts

cast

no\-casts

no\-cast

.RS

These enable or disable casting of action and assignment operator

immutable parameters.  If enabled, a parameter is cast to its own type

when it is substituted into the action.  This will cause some compilers

to complain about attempts to modify the parameter (which can help pick

out attempts at mutating parameters that should not be mutated).  The

disadvantage is that not all compilers will reject attempts at mutation,

and that ANSI doesn't allow casting to structure and union types, which

means that some code may be illegal.  Parameter casting is disabled by

default.

.RE

unreachable\-macros

unreachable\-macro

unreachable\-comments

unreachable\-comment

.RS

These choose whether unreachable code is marked by a macro or a comment.

The default is to mark unreachable code with a comment "/*UNREACHED*/",

however a macro "UNREACHED;" may be used instead, if desired.

.RE

lines

line

no\-lines

no\-line

.RS

These determine whether "#line" directives should be output to relate the

output file to the actions file.  These are generated by default.

.RE

.RE

.IP

The "test" language only takes one input file, and produces no

output file.  It may be used to check that a grammar is valid.  In

conjunction with the dump file, it may be used to check the

transformations that would be applied to the grammar.  There are no

language specific options for the "test" language.

.LP

\fB\-\-show\-errors\fR

.br

\fB\-e\fR

.IP

Write the current error message list to the standard output.

.LP

\fB\-\-switch\fR \fIOPTION\fR

.br

\fB\-s\fR \fIOPTION\fR

.IP

Pass through \fIOPTION\fR as a language specific option.

.LP

\fB\-\-tab\-width\fR \fINUMBER\fR

.br

\fB\-t\fR \fINUMBER\fR

.IP

This option specifies the number of spaces that a tab occupies.  It

defaults to 8.  It is only used when indenting output.

.LP

\fB\-\-version\fR

.br

\fB\-v\fR

.IP

This option causes the version number and supported languages to be

written to the standard error stream.

.SH SEE ALSO

.LP

SID users' guide.