Abstract
Dependent grammars extend context-free grammars by allowing semantic values to be bound to variables and used to constrain parsing. Dependent grammars can cleanly specify common features that cannot be handled by context-free grammars, such as length fields in data formats and significant indentation in programming languages. Few parser generators support dependent parsing, however. To address this shortcoming, we have developed a new method for implementing dependent parsers by extending existing parsing algorithms. Our method proposes a point-free language of dependent grammars, which we believe closely corresponds to existing context-free parsing algorithms, and gives a novel transformation from conventional dependent grammars to point-free ones. To validate our technique, we have specified the semantics of both source and target dependent grammar languages, and proven our transformation sound and complete with respect to those semantics. Furthermore, we have empirically validated the suitability of our point-free language by adapting four parsing engines to support it: an Earley parsing engine; a GLR parsing engine; memoizing, arrow-style parser combinators; and PEG parser combinators.
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