Parser combinators from scratch - BFPG

Fraser writes a simple applicative based parser from scratch showing the concepts. He then extends the applicative parser to be built around Cons to abstract away the stream and piecewise type that the parser is dealing with.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNGGUvP3Egg

Transcript

1. Parser combinators from scratch Fraser Tweedale @hackuador October 13, 2015
2. Confession I hardly know anything about parsing But I know I don’t like repeating myself And I know a bit about APIs and abstraction
3. Parser newtype Parser a = Parser { runParser :: String -> Maybe (a, String) }
4. Parser API data Thing = Thing Int Bool -- serialised repr: "555t", "7f" -- not valid: "t555", "7 f" -- assumed parseInt :: Parser Int parseBool :: Parser Bool -- we want to define parser thusly parseThing :: Parser Thing parseThing = Thing ‘glue‘ parseInt ‘glue‘ parseBool
5. Parser API data Thing = Thing Int Bool -- serialised repr: "555t", "7f" -- not valid: "t555", "7 f" -- assumed parseInt :: Parser Int parseBool :: Parser Bool -- we shall define parser thusly parseThing :: Parser Thing parseThing = Thing <$> parseInt <*> parseBool
6. Parser API class Functor (f :: * -> *) where fmap :: (a -> b) -> f a -> f b class Functor f => Applicative (f :: * -> *) where pure :: a -> f a (<*>) :: f (a -> b) -> f a -> f b (*>) :: f a -> f b -> f b -- has default definition (<*) :: f a -> f b -> f a -- has default definition class Applicative f => Alternative (f :: * -> *) where empty :: f a (<|>) :: f a -> f a -> f a
7. Parser API (<|>) :: Parser a -> Parser a -> Parser a many :: Parser a -> Parser [a] many1 :: Parser a -> Parser (NonEmpty a) sepBy :: Parser sep -> Parser a -> Parser [a] between :: Parser l -> Parser r -> Parser a -> Parser a
8. Let’s write some code!
9. What if. . . Input type is not String (e.g. Text)? Piecewise input type is not Char (e.g. Word8)? Should you have to use a separate library / module?
10. Better Parser API data Amino = G | A | T | C type DNA = [Amino] parseHackerGene :: Parser DNA (NonEmpty Amino) parseHackerGene = many1 (symbol A <|> symbol C)
11. Better Parser API - enter Cons uncons :: Cons s s a a => s -> Maybe (a, s) instance Cons ByteString ByteString Word8 Word8 instance Cons Text Text Char Char instance Cons [a] [b] a b instance Cons (Vector a) (Vector b) a b -- and many more!
12. Better Parser API import Control.Lens.Cons newtype Parser s a = Parser { runParser :: s -> Maybe (a, s) } satisfy :: Cons s s a a => (a -> Bool) -> Parser s a
13. Let’s refactor some code!
14. Haskell parsing libs Parsec (also: Megaparsec) Attoparsec Trifecta uu-parsinglib Parsers (unifying interface)
15. Design considerations Ambiguous parses Incremental input Errors and recovery Performance Backtracking Continuation passing style Transformers
16. Resources and related topics Monadic Parsing in Haskell (Functional Pearl) www.cs.uwyo.edu/˜jlc/courses/3015/parser pearl.pdf Lexer / parser generators (alex / happy) Invertible Syntax Descriptions Paper: www.informatik.uni-marburg.de/˜rendel/unparse/ Libraries: boomerang, roundtrip, invertible-syntax Prisms, lenses and other optics
17. Fin Copyright 2015 Fraser Tweedale This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Slides https://github.com/frasertweedale/talks/ Email frase@frase.id.au Twitter @hackuador