Generate and run a tiny DSL on a given source file.

Transpile any text file into another text file.

Transpilation is not restricted only to programs, this tool can transpile program or markdown or XML or data files.

Usage

You need to supply

• a grammar
• a rewrite file
• node.js
• a program written in the new nano-DSL syntax.

Command Line

• nanodsl libdir grammar rewrite support src

• generate-mjs libdir grammar rewrite support > nanodsl.mjs

  • the first version runs the source code (recommended)
  • the second version generates a nano-dsl written in Javascript that can be run by using node.js (for power users)

Notes

• this tool maps some new nano-DSL syntax into an existing programming language
• this tool is written in Javascript, but, it can map a nano-DSL to any other programming language, like Python, or Haskell, etc.
• the idea is that it is easier to solve a programming problem by using a solution-centric notation (a nano-DSL), instead of using a general purpose programming language
• it takes less code to write a program in a specific nano-DSL than to write the same program in a general purpose programming language
• this tool happens to be written in Javascript (mostly because it uses OhmJS), but, this fact does not restrict what language the tool works with - this tool is a text-to-text transpiler, and can work on any input text (including non-program text like XML or markdown files)

tests/

• the basic function of t2t is tested using four useless tests
• to be documented later
• to run all tests, run 'make' in the tests/ directory

self-compile/

• the core of this tool is a program called t2t.mjs
• t2t.mjs can self-compile and can be used to maintain itself
• the core of the tool is written in two files:
  • t2t.grammar
  • t2t.rewrite
• to re-generate a new version of the tool, run 'make' in the self-compile/ directory
  • 'make' creates a new version of t2t.mjs in the self-compile/ directory, but, does not copy the new version into the ../lib directory
    • you need to copy the re-generated version of t2t.mjs into the ../lib directory manually, after you are satisfied that it works properly

doc/

• the doc/ directory contains README.pdf which is generated from README.pages (using the MacOS 'pages' app)
• the documentation was written for an earlier version of t2t, but, most of the documentation applies to the code contained herein
  • TBD: edit the README.pages document to bring it up to date with this version
    • most of the edits apply to usage and re-generation details
    • the documentation regarding the format of the rewrite specification remains relevant
    • the ultimate specification of .grammar files is documented in OhmJs.org, whereas the ultimate specifcation of .rewrite files is defined in the sourc files t2t.grammar and t2t.rewrite

lib/

contains the actual t2t.mjs program plus various files required for self-compilation

nanodsl

• a script that runs the T2T transpiler
• clone this repo
• create a new project directory
• make a copy of the nanodsl script in the new project directory
• create a grammar and a rewrite file, create an empty support file 'support.js'
• invoke the script by supplying a path to the cloned repo lib subdirectory
• usage: ./nanodsl <xxx.grammar> <xxx.rewrite> support.js

Further Reading

doc/T2T.pdf https://programmingsimplicity.substack.com/p/experiments-with-text-to-text-transpilation