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B<CWB::CEQL::Parser> implements a B<heuristic>-driven, B<deterministic>,
B<top-down> parser for extended context-free grammars written in B<Perl>,
called a B<D>eterministic B<P>erl B<P>arser (B<DPP>).  This parsing algorithm
was designed specifically for automatic translation of simplified, user-friendly
query and scripting languages (such as the B<C>ommon B<E>lementary B<Q>uery
B<L>anguage provided by B<CWB::CEQL>) into low-level code (e.g. B<CQP> syntax).

The DPP architecture was motivated by the observation that simplified queries
are often very similar in structure to the corresponding low-level queries,
and that many authors use cascaded regular expression substitutions to
transform one into the other.  While such cascades are very easy to write in
Perl and perform efficiently, there are two important limitations: it would
often be useful (i) to validate and transform recursive structures, and (ii)
to restrict a particular transformation to a certain scope.  Because of these
limitations, incorrect user input -- and sometimes even correct input -- leads
to malformed low-level queries.  Without an intimate knowledge of the
implementation, it is often impossible to guess the true location of the
problem from the cryptic error messages generated by the backend processor.
Moreover, simplified query languages based on regular expression substitution
typically have rather limited expressiveness and flexibility (because the
substitutions are applied unconditionally, so symbols cannot have different

lib/CWB/CEQL/Parser.pm  view on Meta::CPAN

implementation is essential if you want to build your own custom CEQL
extensions.


=head1 GRAMMAR RULES

=head2 Stand-alone rules

The simplest DPP rules are stand-alone rules that transform their input string
directly without invoking any subrules.  These rules typically make use of regular
expression substitutions and correspond to one part of the substitution cascade
in a traditional implementation of simple query languages.  In contrast to such
cascades, DPP rules apply only to relevant parts of the input string and cannot
accidentally modify other parts of the simple query.  The example below transforms
a search term with shell-style wildcards (C<?> and C<*>) into a regular expression.
Note how the input string is first checked to make sure it does not contain any
other metacharacters that might have a special meaning in the generated regular
expression, and B<die>s with an informative error message otherwise.

  sub wildcard_expression {
    my ($self, $input) = @_;
    die "the wildcard expression ''$input'' contains invalid characters\n"
      unless $input =~ /^[A-Za-z0-9?*-]+$/;