Looking to Create Custom Domain Specific Language that Outputs HTML

Question

I'm looking to create my own custom domain specific language that outputs HTML.

Basically, I want to be able to create quizzes using my own markup, but have that compiled / generated into HTML. For example:

> What is your favorite color?
* Blue
* Green
* Red

should output

<form action="" method="post">
<ul>
  <li>What is your favorite color?</li>
  <input type="radio" name="q1" answer="a" /> Blue <br />
  <input type="radio" name="q1" answer="b" /> Green <br />
  <input type="radio" name="q1" answer="c" /> Red <br />
</ul>

I know that ANTLR does something similar it but doesn't have an HTML output. Any other suggestions?

Answer 1

You could try using Python Lex-Yacc. I've used it in the past for some academic experiments, and it worked nicely.

Answer 2

I would look for a tool (or write my own) that could generate XML:

<question text="What is you favorite color?">
  <choice text="Blue"/>
  <choice text="Green"/>
  <choice text="Red"/>
</question>

I would then use XSLT to transform the XML into HTML. In that way it decouples the presentation from the parsing.

Answer 3

ANTLR can be coupled with StringTemplate to output HTML. In this lab, Terence demonstrates using ANTLR and StringTemplate together.

Answer 4

I personally think that you don't need antlr in this case. You can simply use a couple of String.split to acheive this. For example, given '>' and '*' are reserved words,

String[] questions = text.split(">");
for(String question: questions){
    String[] item = question.split("*");
    System.out.println("<ul>);
    System.out.println("<li>" + item[0] + "</li>");
    for(int i = 1; i<item.length; i++){
     System.out.println("<input type=\"radio\" name=\"q1\" answer=\"" + i + "\" />" + item[i] + "<br />);
    }
    System.out.println("</ul>);
}

suits your need just fine.

Answer 5

I like using TMF Xtext from Eclipse project, it is very simple and in combination with M2T Xpand can easily achieve your goal.