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ECMAScript (JavaScript) Project Proposal
Hi everybody.
You may have noticed that Uwe Hoffman was seeking help to solve a few
conflicts in his ECMA Script grammar (new name for JavaScript). Some
investigation showed that the grammar he used to start his project did not
conform to the official ECMA-262 specification.
Now, I think that having an ECMAScript grammar and interpreter written using
SableCC might appeal to many of you. I do not personally have the time to
implement this project myself, as I am very busy with my Ph.D. research. On
the other hand, I am willing to help with the technical design, giving the
general directions and helping with LALR conflicts, AST transformations, and
interpreter design.
The project would be licensed under the GNU LGPL, and everybody would retain
his copyright on his contribution.
This shouldn't be a very difficult project, (specially that you'll have help
with the darkest part: LALR conflicts;-). In fact, I am convinced that it
could be a very entertaining activity for many of you. We could take
advantage of this project to put in practice many technique that I have
already discussed on the mailing-list.
The benefits of this project would include:
1- Providing a free and standard ECMAScript interpreter to embed in your
applications
2- Providing an example for many techniques not discussed in my thesis
3- Providing participants a great deal of fun!
The project will consist of:
(1) copying the ECMAScript grammar from the specification into a SableCC
grammar.
(2) Resolving conflicts.
(3) Simplifying the AST.
- hidden grammar alternatives
- AST transformation code
(4) Writing the interpreter engine using an AST walker.
We need somebody to be in charge of the overall project coordination (setting
up a web site with CVS access, ...). And, mostly, we need code contributors
(and eventually testers, documenters, ...)
Each of the project steps outlined above can be divided among many people.
Imagine how fast we could have step (1) done, if 5-10 people typed a part of
the specification grammar! (Typing something like 20 productions each,
approx.)
Anybody interested?
Etienne
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Etienne M. Gagnon, M.Sc. e-mail: egagnon@j-meg.com
Author of SableCC: http://www.sable.mcgill.ca/sablecc/
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