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The Lezer Parser System

The Lezer Parser System
Written by Techbot

The problem of parsing structured text has resisted one-size-fits
all solutions for over 60 years. Lezer isn’t such a solution either,
but it is a very decent parser generator, especially well
suited for use in code editors.

Lezer (the Dutch word for reader, pronounced like “laser”) provides
a parser generator that outputs JavaScript modules, which can be
loaded to parse code into a non-abstract syntax tree. This tree can
then be used to do highlighting and basic semantic analysis.

Features

  • Grammar Driven

    Write your
    grammars declaratively,
    use a parser generator tool to convert it into an efficient
    parser.

  • Incremental

    Lezer can quickly re-parse documents that were slightly changed
    compared to a previously parsed version by reusing nodes from the
    old parse.

  • Error-Insensitive

    Being designed for the code editor use case, the parser is
    equipped with strategies for recovering from syntax errors, and
    can produce a tree for any input.

  • Fast

    By using the LR parsing algorithm, an efficient tokenizer, and
    data structures optimized for locality, the parser rips through
    its input like an angry wolverine.

  • Lightweight

    The parser generator produces compact parse table files which,
    along with the run-time library, are all you need to ship to
    clients.

  • Memory-Friendly

    The syntax tree representation is designed to be compact,
    packing groups of smaller nodes into arrays of 16-bit numbers.

Grammars

About

Lezer
is open
source
under an MIT license. It is maintained by
the CodeMirror team.

Lezer is being developed
on GitHub.
Contributions are welcome.

Discussing the project, or asking questions, is best done on
the forum.
Bugs should be reported through
the issue
tracker
. We aim to be an inclusive, welcoming community. To make
that explicit, we have
a code of
conduct
that applies to communication around the project.

Read At Source

About the author

Techbot