Cross-platform parser development - What are the options?

Question

I'm currently working on a project that makes use of a custom language with a simple context-free grammar.

Due to the project's characteristics the same language will have to be used on several platforms, especially mobile ones. Currently, I'm using my small hand-written Java parser (for the Android platform). Soon, I'll have to write basically the same parser for JavaScript and later possibly also for C# (Windows Phone) and Objective C (iOS). There is an additional chance that I'll also have to write it for PHP.

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My question is: What options are there to simplify the parser development process? Do I really have to write basically the same parser for each platform or is there a less work-intensive way?

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From a development process point of view the best alternative would enable me to write a grammar definition which would then automatically be compiled into a parser.

However, basically the only cross-platform parser generator I've found so far it the GOLD Parser which supports two of my target platforms (Java and C#). It would really be awesome if you could point me to other alternatives.

In case you don't know about other cross-platform compiler-compilers: Do you have hints how to structure the code towards future language extensibility?

Answer 1

I commend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_parser_generators to your attention: if we restrict the domain to Java and C/C++, it suggests APG, GOLD, SableCC, and SLK (amongst others) as being cross-language enough for your stated goals. (I'm also requiring that the action code be separated from the grammar rather than inline, since the latter would defeat the purpose.) If you want JavaScript as well, it looks like your choices are APG (GPL-licensed) and WaxEye (MIT-licensed).

If your language is reasonably simple then I would say to just go with whichever you think will be easiest to integrate into your build environment(s) and has a reasonable match with how you think. Unless parsing time is a huge fraction of your application's total workload, parsing speed should not be an issue -- although table size and memory usage might matter in a mobile context. If your grammar is "simple enough," (i.e. not Perl, for instance) I would expect any of those tools to work.