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From tengstrand

What Laja is

• Laja is a code generator.
• Laja is a parser generator that uses the code generator and generates parsers for Java.
• It should be possible to run Laja on most variants of Windows, Unix/Linux.
• Laja is Open Source, using GNU General Publi License version 3.0.
• Laja is written to be used by developers with easy of use as the primary goal. Generating text files or creating DSL's should be both easy and fun!
• Laja is flexible and extendible:
  • Jar files can be added just by putting them in directory LAJA_HOME/lib.
  • Support for Groovy.
• Laja is written in Java.

The code generator

• Has support for creating files out of the box, no add-ons is needed.
• Is integrated with Groovy. You can write Groovy code to gather data to be used by your templates.
• Templates used to generate text files has support for indentation for increased readability, e.g:

#set (separator = "")

#write "output.txt"
  #foreach (x in ["one", "two", "three"])
{separator}{x}##
    #set (separator=", ")
  #end
#end

instead of:

#set (separator = "")

#write "output.txt"
#foreach (x in ["one", "two", "three"])
{separator}{x}##
#set (separator=", ")
#end
#end

The parser generator

Laja is a two-phase scannerless, top-down, backtracking parser generator with support for runtime grammar rules. One of the main ideas of the parser generator has been to introduce a more object-oriented approach when working with parsing. Another idea was to make it as easy as possible to use without sacrificing functionality.

• With little practice you will be able to create your own external DSLs, even complex ones.
• Spaces and comments are handled the same way as other grammar rules, with no exceptions.
• No configuration files (e.g XML files) is needed when generating a parser.
• You can control the output that will come out from the parsing. This is done by mapping the grammar rules into object structures (which is both simple and powerful).
• The generated parser code and the implementing output classes is separated, which is good!
• You will get compilation failures if the implementing output classes does not follow the interface defined in the grammar, which makes it easy to implement the output classes.
• Laja is prepared to support more languages than Java in the future.

This website is a Wiki using MediaWiki.

Laja is deveoped by Joakim Tengstrand

Feel free to contact me at: laja.mailbox@g-m-a-i-l.c-o-m (remove all -)