Creating DSLs with ANTLR
We've all heard the buzz around creating internal Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) in languages such as Ruby and Groovy, and indeed this excitement is well founded. The ability to develop software which communicates in ways familiar to people in the domain is very powerful. But there is a natural limit to the expressiveness of any given programing language, and there are situations when an internal DSL is not sufficient.
In these situations parser generators such as ANTLR (ANother Tool for Language Recognition) really shine.
In this presentation you will see how a DSL can be built from the ground up with ANTLR. You will gain an overall understanding of how the major components of ANTLR collaborate to translate structured text into valuable inputs for
your applications. And many insights will be shared along the way highlighting best practices and common pitfalls to avoid.
About Derek Lane
Derek Lane is the CTO at Semantra. He has worn various hats in his career including mentor, coach, architect, manager, developer, trainer, methodologist and all around cool guy. Derek is a contributor to various projects as author, presenter, committer, and technical reviewer, including his most recent role as co-author for the book, “EJB3 In Action”, published by Manning.
Derek is the Founder of both the Oklahoma City Java User Group (OKCJUG) and the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas MicroJava User Group; and has been active as a member, presenter, and mentor for over a decade at various technology user groups across the Midwest and Southern US.
Derek can on occasion be found utilizing his background in engineering, Virtual Reality and 3D graphics to think in four or more dimensions - some of which have yet to be independently verified. When not exploring the mind numbing edge of technology, he can be found listening to Bluegrass music and watching old Kung Fu movies - a dangerous combination from any point of view.
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