TextureMind Framework – Progress #18 – AnsiC Parser

A new AnsiC parser was born inside TextureMind Framework. I'm programming this parser from scratch, starting to implement all the standard ISO C89 features. Most importantly, the parser is designed for being extended to any other language, formal and not formal, which is the main reason why I didn't use another existing and well proven parser, like CLang. Another reason is that the parser is designed for being light-weight and anchored to the framework's internal architecture.

I implemented all the main features and now the parser is able to parse a huge variety of AnsiC source codes. I was able to parse also the donut source code and to get the AST from it:

             k;double sin()
         ,cos();main(){float A=
       0,B=0,i,j,z[1760];char b[
     1760];printf("\x1b[2J");for(;;
  ){memset(b,32,1760);memset(z,0,7040)
  ;for(j=0;6.28>j;j+=0.07)for(i=0;6.28
 >i;i+=0.02){float c=sin(i),d=cos(j),e=
 sin(A),f=sin(j),g=cos(A),h=d+2,D=1/(c*
 h*e+f*g+5),l=cos      (i),m=cos(B),n=s\
in(B),t=c*h*g-f*        e;int x=40+30*D*
(l*h*m-t*n),y=            12+15*D*(l*h*n
+t*m),o=x+80*y,          N=8*((f*e-c*d*g
 )*m-c*d*e-f*g-l        *d*n);if(22>y&&
 y>0&&x>0&&80>x&&D>z[o]){z[o]=D;;;b[o]=
 ".,-~:;=!*#$@"[N>0?N:0];}}/*#****!!-*/
  printf("\x1b[H");for(k=0;1761>k;k++)
   putchar(k%80?b[k]:10);A+=0.04;B+=
     0.02;}}/*****####*******!!=;:~
       ~::==!!!**********!!!==::-
         .,~~;;;========;;;:~-.
             ..,--------,*/

Pretty cool, isn't it? The source code has the shape of a donut and it can generate a rotating 3D donut in ascii characters. As you can see, it's not a conventional source code, it's packed and full of tricks to reduce the space, so it was a perfect test for my new parser. I was suprised to see that the parser was actually capable of parsing it, in a time of about 1.37 ms. That would be very cool to execute it now! I have in my plans to write an AST interpreter to manipulate the source code, to translate it into another language and to execute it. The AST structure can be used as well to feed a virtual machine with instructions (like LLVM) or for another compiler backend, like TinyC. The main goal is to use this parser for writing applications with a full access to the framework's functionalities.

Another goal is to implement a GLSL parser and manipulate the source code to integrate program shaders into my materials' system. It will be possible to copy & paste shaders from shadertoy into material nodes, to create super complex materials for 3D rendering.

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