Parsers generated in this format use module.exports, so they are not
strictly CommonJS, but this is a common extension and the original name
would be confusing once Node.js implements ES2015 modules.
Rename compiler passes as follows:
reportLeftRecursion -> reportInfiniteRecursion
reportInfiniteLoops -> reportInfiniteRepetition
This reflects the fact that both passes detect different ways of causing
the same problem (possible infinite loop when parsing).
The new terminology is more precise and in line with commonly used
programming languages.
The change involves mainly renaming related compiler pass and files
associated with it.
This change reflects the fact that PEG.js-generated parsers really
produce two kinds of syntax errors:
Structured errors
Caused by match failures, trailing input, or calls of the "expected"
function in parser code. Their messages have fixed format ("Expected
... but ... found.").
Simple errors
Caused by calls of the "error" function in parser code. Their
messages don't have any fixed format.
Each kind of error now has a separate helper function which builds its
instances.
The "parser" variable allowed access to the parser object. Among other
things, this made it possible to invoke the parser recursively using
"parser.parse".
One problem with the "parser" variable is that it bakes in the idea that
the parser is an *object*, not a *module*. While this is true now, it
won't necessarily be in the future, when parsers may be exported as ES6
modules. Also, people tend to use parsers as modules even today, e.g.
like this:
var parse = require("parser").parse;
var result = parse(...);
Such usage broke the "parser" variable (as it was implemented).
For this reasons I decided to remove the "parser" variable. If someone
needs to do tricks like recursive invocation of the parser, he/she must
pass the parser or the "parse" function itself using options.
Related to #433.
This change makes it possible to use "generate" as a module function,
e.g. like this:
var generate = require("pegjs").generate;
var parser = generate(...);
Fixes#433.
Until now, expectations were constructed using object literals. This
commit changes the construction to use factory functions.
This change makes generated parsers slightly smaller because property
names don't have to be repeated many times and factory function calls
are more amenable to minifying.
Some numbers based on the aggregate size of parsers generated from
examples/*.pegjs:
Optimization Minified? Size before Size after Saving
------------------------------------------------------------
speed no 719066 716063 0.42%
speed yes 188998 180202 4.65%
size no 194810 197813 1.52%
size yes 108782 99947 8.12%
(Minification was done using "uglify --mangle --compress" with
uglify-js 2.4.24.)
The "buildMessage" utility function, which was previously internal, is
now exposed as SyntaxError.buildMessage in generated parsers.
The motivation behind this is two-fold:
1. Building of a syntax error message is a responsibility of the
SyntaxError class, meaning the code should be placed there.
2. By exposing the message building code, parser users can use it to
generate customized error messages without duplicating PEG.js's code.
Note that helper functions inside "buildMessage" ("describeExpected",
"describeFound", etc.) currently aren't exposed. They may become exposed
in the future if there is enough demand.
Instead of pre-generating expectation descriptions when generating
parsers, generate them dynamically from structured information contained
in the expectations.
This change makes descriptions a presentation-only concept. It also
makes generated parsers smaller.
Before this commit, expectations were sorted and de-duplicated before
they were passed to "buildMessage" and exposed in the "expected"
property of syntax errors. This commit moves this processing into
"buildMessage" and rewrites it to process only expectation descriptions.
This means expectations exposed in the "expected" property are "raw"
(not sorted and de-duplicated).
This change will allow us to get rid of the "description" property of
expectations and compute descriptions dynamically from structured
information in the expectations. This will make descriptions a
presentation-only concept. It will also make generated parsers smaller.
Note that to keep expectations in the "expected" property sorted even
without the "description" property, some sorting scheme based on
structured information in the expectations would have to be devised,
which would complicate things with only a little benefit. Therefore I
chose to keep the expectations there "raw".
Changes:
* Remove the "value" property (it is replaced by other properties).
* Add the "parts", "inverted", and "ignoreCase" properties (which
allow more structured access to expectation data).
Changes:
* Rename the "value" property to "text" (because it doesn't contain
the whole value, which also includes the case sensitivity flag).
* Add the "ignoreCase" property (which was missing).
If the described class is case-sensitive, nothing changes.
If the described class is case-insensitive, its description doesn't
indicate that anymore. The indication was awkward and it was meaningful
only for parser users familiar with PEG.js grammar syntax (typically a
minority). For cases where case insensitivity indication is vital, named
rules can be used to customize the reporting.
Note that literal descriptions already ignore the case-sensitivity flag;
this commit only makes things consistent.
David Majda