Metamodel-based Parser Generator for Python

Abstract

Most of the parser tools are concentrated on the concrete syntax and grammar definition. This paper describes a language definition tool that uses a metamodel specification instead of a grammar as a basis of the language definition. Inspired by a similar Java tool known as YAJCo, the metamodel is defined using usual object-oriented techniques-as classes in the Python programming language. The result of the parsing process is a graph of objects. The tool is demonstrated in a case study of a state machine definition language.