ANTLR is used to parse (but not lex) AS, and to both lex and parse CSS. - Gordon.
-----Original Message----- From: Michael Schmalle [mailto:m...@teotigraphix.com] Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2012 11:16 AM To: flex-dev@incubator.apache.org Subject: RE: Falcon compiler source code / Falcon architecture Gordon this is about the best news we could get. It's great to see this structure! I can't wait. What parts are using ANTLR grammar? Thanks, Mike Quoting Gordon Smith <gosm...@adobe.com>: > Until we release specs, Javadoc, or code for Falcon, here is a very > brief overview of Falcon's architecture: > > Falcon is designed from the beginning to support compiling multiple > targets in multiple projects in a workspace (as you have in an IDE > like Flash Builder). By contrast, asc was designed to compile a single > AS file, and then mxmlc was built on top of that. > > Falcon uses multiple threads to compile multiple files at the same > time. The more cores you have, the faster it goes. > > Critical data structures such as the symbol table (which stores > information about which classes are known, what methods they have, > etc.) are shared across the entire workspace, to minimize memory > usage. > > Critical data structures are maintained in memory to support both > compilation and IDS code intelligence in an efficient and consistent > way. For example: If you open a file in the IDE, Falcon builds a > syntax tree and symbol table for it to support intelligent editing. > Compiling the file requires just one additional code generation step. > By contrast, in the current Flash Builder which uses the compiler in > the SDK, Flash Builder builds its own parse trees and symbol tables to > support editing, and then when you compile the compiler in the SDK > builds another set of parse trees and symbol tables. This is slow and > a waste of memory. > > Falcon understands .as, .mxml, .css, and .properties files. > > The parse trees for AS consist of nodes from about 100 classes, such > as LiteralNode, BinaryOperatorNode, FunctionNode, ClassNode. The parse > trees for MXML consist of nodes from about 50 classes, such as > MXMLDocumentNode, MXMLInstanceNode, MXMLScriptNode, etc. The > ActionScript-y parts of MXML are represented by AS nodes inside of > MXML nodes. > > The symbol table consists of objects representing the things your code > defines, such as ClassDefiniition, FunctionDefinition, and > VariableDefinition, arranged into a hierarchy of scope objects. > > Falcon uses 3rd-party grammars like JFlex, ANTLR, and JBurg to > generate various lexers, parsers, and code generators. > > MXML is compiled directly to ABC, not to ActionScript source code or > an ActionScript parse tree. > > - Gordon Smith, Adobe > > P.S. After working on the Flex framework since its inception for about > 8 years, I joined the Falcon team 18 months ago. > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Raju Bitter [mailto:rajubit...@googlemail.com] > Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2012 2:10 AM > To: flex-dev@incubator.apache.org > Subject: Re: Falcon compiler source code / Falcon architecture > > 2012/1/19 Alex Harui <aha...@adobe.com>: >> I was in the Falcon code in November. It was way easier to figure >> out how to make changes than with MXMLC. Even if it is not >> documented, I think it will be easier to make progress that with the Falcon >> code base. > I agree, that sounds like it would be much better to use the Falcon > code base. There are normally fewer community members with much > experience in language/compiler design, and the cleaner the > architecture is, the better for the community. >
