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Re: [e4-dev] CSS Engine and CSS3 SAC Parser with FreeCC?

On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 9:18 PM, Mathias Schäffner
<mathias.schaeffner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I think it's a great idea having a new CSS Parser, so that we don't
> depend on the Batik implementation anymore.
> Would be easier to maintain it and to implement new features that we
> would like to have because of some Eclipse projects that use a CSS
> parser.
>
> CSS3 is a great step forward.
> But I'm more interested in some other features.

Hi Mathias,

Sorry to have taken so long to respond to this.

>
> 1. Correct handling of comments within a CSS file

> 2. Getting information (line and column number) where a rule or
> property occurs in the file

Yes! Definitely!

Really, for me, this is not an issue specifically in writing the CSS3
parser, but rather, it is something that pervades my work in the
parser space, my work on FreeCC and also FreeMarker. (In the case of
FreeMarker, the superior error messages that it generates are
frequently cited as a big advantage over competing templating tools.)

I find that the whole question of maintaining location information and
generating good error messages that allow you to trace back to the
point of error, this is something that is not really addressed
adequately in most existing tools. My own theory about why this is is
that this whole parser generation space is very dominated by
academic/theoretical considerations over pragmatic ones. So, you know,
from the theoretical viewpoint, what the parser does with incorrect
input is basically beside the point. Your parser rejects incorrect
input and that's that.

However, as a practical question, what a parser (and consequently a
compiler or interpreter) does with incorrect input is very important,
because a tool providing a clear message about what was wrong and the
location where it was wrong is a huge factor in a tool's usability.

So, you see, a basic goal in FreeCC development is that any parser you
develop with FreeCC will almost automatically (or at least with
minimal extra effort on the part of the developer) provide very good
error message feedback. And, of course, my idea in the conversation
with Angelo Zerr, was that the CSS3 parser would kind of be a showcase
for how to use FreeCC, so this kind of issue will be very central.

Anyway, I am sorry to have been so slow to respond. It is probably
because I am a bit embarrassed at having been so slow to get the CSS3
parser going and I don't like talking too much about things that are
vapour. Certainly I'll be much more vocal when there is actually some
initial beta that you guys can try out.

Thanks,

Jonathan Revusky
--
lead developer, FreeMarker project, http://freemarker.org
FreeCC Parser Generator http://code.google.com/p/freecc



>
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Today we have several SAC Parser implementation available (Batik, Flute,...).
>> E4 CSS engine is today based on Batik SAC implementation, I think for IP reason.
>>
>> Problem is that SAC Parser implementation manage only CSS2, not CSS3.
>> You can find CSS3 features at http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-selectors/
>>
>> Why CSS3? Because it gives some features like :
>>
>> * nth-child : which is very interesting to set CSS  style into row of SWT Table (eg : set a color to a particulary row like set blue color on odd row and set red color even row). Ex :
>>
>> TableItem:nth-child(odd) {
>>    color:blue;
>> }
>>
>>
>> TableItem:nth-child(even) {
>>    color:red;
>> }
>>
>> * use namespace to disting CSS style for SWT Label and Custom Label. Ex :
>>
>> @namespace custom "com.mycompany.widgets"
>>
>> Label {
>>    color:red;
>> }
>>
>> custom|Label {
>>    color:blue;
>> }
>>
>>
>> With CSS2 SAC Parser, we cannot manage thoses cases. I think it's shame.
>> So I think it's time to think about CSS3 SAC Parser implementation.
>>
>> I don't know if Batik is interesting to support CSS3 SAC Parser, but I know that Jonathan Revusky, one creator of famous Freemarker project is perhaps interesting to implement CSS3 SAC Parser with her new project FreeCC which is Parser (it's a fork of JavaCC).
>>
>> What do you think about the idea to implement CSS3 SAC Parser with FreeCC?
>>
>> Regards Angelo
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