I need to parse a DSL file using Python. A DSL file is a text file with a text having a special markup with tags used by ABBYY Lingvo.
It looks like:
activate
[m0][b]ac·ti·vate[/b] {{id=000000367}} [c rosybrown]\[[/c][c darkslategray][b]activate[/b][/c] [c darkslategray][b]activates[/b][/c] [c darkslategray][b]activated[/b][/c] [c darkslategray][b]activating[/b][/c][c rosybrown]\][/c] [p]BrE[/p] [c darkgray] [/c][c darkcyan]\[ˈæktɪveɪt\][/c] [s]z_activate__gb_1.wav[/s] [p]NAmE[/p] [c darkgray] [/c][c darkcyan]\[ˈæktɪveɪt\][/c] [s]z_activate__us_1.wav[/s] [c orange] verb[/c] [c darkgray] [/c][b]{{cf}}\~ sth{{/cf}} [/b]
[m1]{{d}}to make sth such as a device or chemical process start working{{/d}}
[m2][ex][*]• [/*][/ex][ex][*]{{x}}The burglar alarm is activated by movement.{{/x}} [/*][/ex]
[m2][ex][*]• [/*][/ex][c darkgray] [/c][ex][*]{{x}}The gene is activated by a specific protein.{{/x}} [/*][/ex]
{{Derived Word}}[m3][c darkslategray][u]Derived Word:[/u][/c] ↑<<activation>>{{/Derived Word}}
{{side_verb_forms}}[m3][c darkslategray][u]Verb forms:[/u][/c] [s]x_verb_forms_activate.jpg[/s]{{/side_verb_forms}}
Now I see the only option to parse this file using regexps. But I doubt if it can be achieved since tags in that format has some hierarchy, where some of them are inside others.
I can’t use special xml and html parsers. They are perfect in creating a tree-structure of the document, but they are designed for special tags of html and xml.
What is the best way to parse a file in such a format? Is there any Python library for that purpose?
Look at http://www.dabeaz.com/ply/
You may be able to define the syntax quickly and easily as a set of Lexical rules and some grammar productions.
If you don’t like that one, here’s a list of alternatives.
http://wiki.python.org/moin/LanguageParsing