[ d20statblock.org ] a grammar

[jmettraux]

Originally posted by CRGreathouse
> If I have some time, I will come up with a grammar describing your
> standard.

That sounds good, but what is the purpose of this type of definition?
Is it primarily designed for human or machine reading? How closely
does it specify - can a field be restricted to +# (# 0 or greater), or
# (# less than 0)? Can a field be restricted to either nothing or a
string ending with ","? Etc.

In any case, thanks for the effort. If you ever start the grammar,
would you start a thread on the Software forum? Thanks.

So I've come up with a first draft of this standard d20statblock grammar.

I've put it in a CVS tree, so it's version controlled.

You can find it here :

http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/dgsh/dgsh/import_samples/standard.ebnf

(direct link to the latest version : http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/...rev=HEAD&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup)

Comments and corrections are welcome.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Does anyone else feel like brushing up on EBNF?

 

[MJEggertson]

EBNF? Is that some sofware thingy that's preventing the links from working?

The acronym-impaired,
-Mike

 

[CRGreathouse]

EBNF? Is that some sofware thingy that's preventing the links from working?

It stands for (CRGreathouse cuts and pastes) Extended Backus-Naur Form. It's kind of like a DTD - it defines a particular language or format.

 

[MJEggertson]

Hehehe. I definitely don't blame you on needing to copy and paste that. Good one.

 

[jmettraux]

new version of the grammar issued, the usual links are still :
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/dgsh/dgsh/import_samples/standard.ebnf
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/...rev=HEAD&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup
The diff to the previous version :
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/...port_samples/standard.ebnf.diff?r1=1.1&r2=1.2



The goals of this grammar :

1) define a standard stat block exactly And be able to discuss the subtleties of the standard more easily

2) be used to generate stat block parsers

2b) validate stat blocks as being 'standard'


Comments and corrections on the grammar and its goals are welcome.

 

[CRGreathouse]

be used to generate stat block parsers

Do you have a good parser generator? I've been trying to get one to work, but no such luck so far.

 

[jmettraux]

Do you have a good parser generator?

Some hints here :

http://catalog.compilertools.net/lexparse.html
http://www.first.gmd.de/cogent/catalog/java.html

It seems the variety of EBNF I currently use is not the right one for the tools available on these URLS. Anyway, adaptation shall be easy as soon as we find the right tool.

 

[jmettraux]

This might also be useful :

http://www.gnu.org/manual/bison/html_mono/bison.html

 

[Leopold]

also if you guys have all the monsters and stuff in statblock format and stuff from SRD posted it would be a GREAT help to the community.


I know you are trying to set a standard here but if you could take, say the monster manual, and convert it into statblock or even the Creature collection that would be awesome!