You can download an executable file that implements the current stable syntax from www.b6sw.com/ViviFire/VF.exe.

The program needs to be passed the name of a file to parse on the command line; therefore, it's best to run this from the Command Prompt.

I just uploaded a new version. My current and primary reason for this executable release is to see what you all think about the error messages it generates.

You don't need to know every detail of VF's syntax. In fact, it might be preferable if you know only LB or RB and haven't been following this forum that closely. You could make it into a little game with the goal to produce the most obscure error message.

If you do produce an error message you don't understand, please post the code here.

I will hopefully be able to do some testing over the weekend.

Thanks for the sneak-peek ;)

I continue to work on improving the error messages—particularly those related to malformed tokens. Look for an update this weekend.

http://www.b6sw.com/docs/ViviFire

There's a new release, just in case you didn't notice. The next release will likely be next weekend. Some problems I'm working on include allowing comments in more places and repeated comments. I'll also try to make the EXE much smaller.

After seeing Brandon's recent bug report, I ran his code through VF and got "Invalid IfStatement" which seems unsatisfactory. In the next release it should instead display the message "Mismatched parentheses."

I just updated the files. You may notice that VF.exe has shed some weight. It's about 500KB smaller than its predecessor. If you feel so inclined, please try it out.

The only complaint about the feedback I'm getting is that it's completely nonexistent. Please let me know what causes your disinterest. Or if that term doesn't cover it, I'm eager to learn what you really think.

I have considered posting about VF on the Conforums board, but hesitate, not wishing to appear as competition with LB5 for people's attention.

I would love to help with testing but I'm not real sure what to do. I opened the command prompt and typed in <C:\Users\rob\Desktop\vivfire\VF.exe "VFUnit.txt"> (without the arrows, didnt want to use quotes and confuse things) When I press run a dos type window flashes on my screen. Not really sure if VFUnit.txt is a vf program or not. Tried it with a small LB program and got same flashing window.

The .txt files are grammar specifications for VF. In particular, VFUnit.txt is for the sub-scanner to lex unit names which follow different rules from the normal grammar specified by VF2012.txt. I haven't uploaded any test files yet, because the grammar is still in flux. The main purpose for releasing the executable is to allow people to stumble around and tell me if they get any errors they find strange. If you have read all of my "experiment" posts, you should get a good idea of what is going on with syntax and the goals of the project.

The best way to run VF.exe is to place it in a folder of your choice, then start Command Prompt and CD to that directory. Then type "notepad <some file>" where <some file> is a name of your choice and allow Notepad to create it. Then you can type some code you think will produce a certain error (or not) and save it. Then go back to Command Prompt and type "vf <some file>" and watch what happens.

Currently the program will display each token on a separate line. For an expression, it will print out labels that indicate which productions are invoked to parse the expression. The numbers to the left of the token are that token's associated token number (eg 1 = newline).

I tried out the parser. It's great! I think.

I ran it on this code file:

Code:

print "Hello, world!" end

Based on LB, right?

Code:

C:\Users\Joseph\Downloads>vf vf.txt 19:print 17:"hello, world!"-- line 1 col 7: plainHandle expected 1:? 19:end-- line 2 col 4: plainHandle expected -- 2 error(s)

That's what I got. It looks like it's working! I'm just...at a loss of what "plainHandle" is. Does VF require mandatory parenthesis on all function calls?

I can't tell, but I changed it to this:

Code:

Print("hello, world!") end

And got this:

Code:

C:\Users\Joseph\Downloads>vf vf.txt 19:print 4:( Identifier variable 17:"hello, world!" Expression Logical Relational Additive Multiplicative Power U nary Primary String 5:) 1:?-- line 1 col 24: invalid AssignmentStatement 19:end-- line 2 col 4: plainHandle expected -- 2 error(s)

Enlighten me, perhaps? ;) In any event, great job on your parser! It seems to be completely over-controlling jerk, which is always a good thing when it comes to parsers. :)

Hi Joseph,

VF isn't designed to work like LB; it was inspired by it. That being the case, there's no PRINT keyword. Instead you have to pass a value to an object's method. It might look like

Code:

require IO #out #out "Hello world!"NL""

Here, the REQUIRE statement works much like Run BASIC's RUN statement to import a library and assign it a handle. The library exports an anonymous method, which is called in the second line. The NL metacharacter is to print a newline. I have considered adding support for macros that would provide an exact equivalent to the PRINT statement, but haven't.

The term "plainHandle" is to distinguish it from a "handleArray".

Code:

#handle = #null #handles(1) = #null #handles("test") = #null

Ok, I'm starting to get the idea of it.

But even this didn't work. It should at least be valid to the parser, right?

Code:

require IO #io #io "Hello world!"

Joseph, you didn't mention what the error message was, or if you got one. The only error I can fathom you getting is "newline expected" because every statement must end with a line break.

BTW, for anyone running Vista or later, you can send VF's output to the clipboard using a command like

Code:

vf test.txt|clip