textX

The use of textX makes creating a parser and generating ASTs from it much simpler. By providing a grammar description and custom classes, textX allows us to easily generate a parser for a given formal language. This tool greatly simplifies and improves the readability of the code involved in these tasks. It eliminates the need to build a parser from scratch, which is not only more challenging but also prone to errors. To sum up, textX makes the construction of a formal language parser easier, relieving us of the task of instructing the computer on how to process it and allowing us to focus on describing the language itself.

Another notable feature of the tool is its ability to generate a PNG image that visually represents the ASTs. This feature proves valuable for debugging purposes, as it allows for improved analysis and understanding of the expressions present in your custom language. To be able to generate images, textX relies on GraphViz, a visualization library that must be installed.

Some terminology used by textX:

• DSL: domain-specific language
• Language description: grammar + classes description
• Meta-model: Parser
• Model: AST, i.e. a tree of python objects

How to use textX?

1. Write a language description.
2. Create custom classes.
3. Instantiate the meta-model from the language description.
4. Build a model from meta-model applied to a string written in your DSL.
5. Use or visualize your model.