[ragel-users] Default actions that leave the machine

[Murray Henderson]

Hello,

I want to embed a default action into a machine that leaves the
machine (without using manual a jump inside the action).

For simplicities sake, I will call this operator $^^ (since it is
similar to the Local Error operator).


Example:

action parse_error {}
helloworld = ('HELLO ' %^^parse_error) 'WORLD';

Non-error inputs include:
HELLO WORLD
HELLOWORLD (parse_error action occurs on 'O' -> 'W' transition)
HELLWORLD (parse_error action occurs on 'L' -> 'W' transition)
HELWORLD (parse_error action occurs on 'L' -> 'W' transition)
HEWORLD (parse_error action occurs on 'E' -> 'W' transition)
HWORLD (parse_error action occurs on 'H' -> 'W' transition)
WORLD (parse_error action occurs on -> 'W' transition)


I can simulate the above behavior with the '?' operator, but that is
laborious, and there are other ways of using $^^ that I suspect cannot
be simulated.


I want this operator because I am trying to make a liberal parser that
accepts all possible input. (Every state must have a default action)
.I am creating a html5 parser that uses regular machines for
tokenizing, and scanners built from the regular machines for parsing.
Yes, I am mad.

I cannot use manual jumps, because I don't want to jump out of the
scanners mid-token.


I am willing to try and add this operator into Ragel myself. I have
grabbed the source code and tracked my way to fsmap.cpp, where the new
operator would be added.

Before I continue...
Is there already a way to achieve my desired behavior that I am not aware of?
Would such an operator be worthwhile? Is it even possible?
Is there any knowledge that could be imparted that would help me make a patch?

If I do end up making a patch, for symmetry purposes I will make
global/local and start/any/final etc versions of the operator.

After a brief look through the source, it looks like I would need to
mod the FsmAp::fillGaps() function, passing in a (separate object for
each?) final state into the FsmAp::attachNewTrans() instead of NULL.

Ragel is a wonderful program by the way, thank you for creating it.

Cheers,
Murray

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