Question

I need to develop an application that will read and understand text file in which I’ll find a custom language that describe a list of operations (ie cooking recipe). This language has not been defined yet, but it will probably take one of the following shape :

• C++ like code

(This code is randomly generated, just for example purpose) :

begin
repeat(10)
{
    bar(toto, 10, 1999, xxx);
}
result = foo(xxxx, 10);
if(foo == ok)
{
    ...
}
else
{
    ...
}
end

• XML code

(This code is randomly generated, just for example purpose) :

<recipe>
    <action name="foo" argument"bar, toto, xxx" repeat=10/>
    <action name="bar" argument"xxxxx;10" condition="foo == ok">
        <true>...</true>
        <false>...</false>
    </action>
</recipe>

No matter which language will be chosen, there will have to handle simple conditions, loops.

I never did such a thing but at first sight, it occurs to me that describing those operations into XML would be simplier yet less powerful.

After browsing StackOverFlow, I’ve found some chats on a tool called “ANTLR”… I started reading “The Definitive ANTLR Reference” but since I never done that kind of stuff, I find it hard to know if it’s really the kind of tool I need…

In other words, what do I need to read a text file, interpret it properly and perform actions in my C# code. Those operations will interact between themselves by simple conditions like :

• If operation1 failed, I do operation2 else operation3.
• Repeat the operation4 10 times.

What would be the best language to do describe those text file (XML, my own) ? What are the key points during such developments ?

I hope I’m being clear 🙂

Thanks a lot for your help and advices !

Answer 1

XML is great for storing relational data in a verbose way. I think it is a terrible candidate for writing logic such as a program, however.

Have you considered using an existing grammar/scripting language that you can embed, rather than writing your own? E.g:

LUA

Python