Lexical syntax

This page describes the ToolDef lexical syntax.

Keywords

General

as          else        if          map         tool
bool        end         import      null        true
break       exit        in          object      tuple
continue    false       int         return      type
double      for         list        set         while
elif        from        long        string

Operators

and         div         mod         not         or

Built-in data tools

abs         enumerate      log         reverse       str
ceil        floor          lower       round         strdup
contains    fmt            ltrim       rtrim         subset
del         indexof        max         size          trim
delidx      join           min         sorted        upper
empty       keys           pow         split         values
endswith    lastindexof    range       sqrt
entries     ln             replace     startswith

Built-in I/O tools

err         errln       out         outln

Built-in generic tools

app         exec        tooldef

Built-in path tools

abspath     dirname
basename    fileext
chdir       hasfileext
chfileext   pathjoin
curdir      scriptpath

Built-in file tools

cpdir       filenewer   isfile      readlines
cpfile      filesize    mkdir       rmdir
diff        find        mvdir       rmfile
exists      isdir       mvfile      writefile

Terminals

Besides the keyword terminals listed above, ToolDef features several other terminals:

IDENTIFIERTK

An identifier. Defined by the regular expression: [$]?[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*. They thus consist of letters, numbers and underscore characters (_). Identifiers may not start with a numeric digit. Keywords take priority over identifiers. To use a keyword as an identifier, prefix it with a $ character. The $ is not part of the identifier name.

Examples:

apple       // identifier
bear        // identifier
int         // keyword
$int        // identifier 'int' (override keyword priority with $)
RELATIVENAMETK

A name. Defined by the regular expression: [$]?[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*(\.[$]?[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*)+. It thus consists of two or more IDENTIFIERTK joined together with periods (.).

Examples:

some_library.some_tool
NUMBERTK

An integer literal. Defined by the regular expression: 0|[1-9][0-9]*. Integers thus consist of numeric digits. Only for the number 0 may an integer literal start with 0. E.g. 02 is invalid.

Examples:

0
1
123
DOUBLETK

A double literal. Defined by the regular expression: (0|[1-9][0-9]*)(\.[0-9]+|(\.[0-9]+)?[eE][\-\+]?[0-9]+). Simple double literals consist of an integer literal followed by a period (.) and some numeric digits. Double literals using scientific notation start with either an integer literal or a simple double literal. They then contain either an e or E, followed by the exponent. The exponent consists of numeric digits, optionally preceded by + or -.

Examples:

0.0
1e5
1E+03
1.05e-78
STRINGTK

A string literal. Defined by the regular expression: \"([^\\\"\n]|\\[nt\\\"])*\". String literals are enclosed in double quotes ("). String literals must be on a single line and must thus not include new line characters (\n, Unicode U+0A). To include a double quote (") in a string literal, it must be escaped as \". Since a backslash (\) serves as escape character, to include a backslash in a string literal it must be escaped as \\. To include a tab character in a string literal, use \t. To include a newline in a string literal, use \n.

Examples:

"hello world"
"first line\nsecond line"

Whitespace

ToolDef supports spaces, tabs, and new line characters as whitespace. Whitespace is ignored (except in string literals), but can be used to separate tokens as well as for layout purposes. The use of tab characters is allowed, but should be avoided if possible, as layout will be different for text editors with different tab settings. You may generally format a ToolDef script as you see fit, and start on a new line when desired.

Examples:

// Normal layout.
int x = 5;

// Alternative layout.
int
  x    =
    5
  ;

Comments

ToolDef features two types of comments. Single line comments start with // and end at end of the line. Multi line comments start with /* and end at */. Comments are ignored.

Examples:

int x = 5; // Single line comment.

int /* some comment */ x = /* some
  more comments
  and some more
 end of the multi line comment */ 5;