Question 1

Csly vs ANTLR for building a DSL in C#?

Accepted Answer

Csly is better for small, embeddable DSLs with no build steps, as it integrates directly in C# code using attributes. ANTLR is more suited for complex languages with extensive tooling and grammar files, but requires external code generation.

Question 2

How to handle operator precedence in Csly?

Accepted Answer

Define operators with precedence levels using the [Operand] and [Infix] attributes in your parser class; Csly automatically generates parsing rules. Refer to the expression parsing wiki for examples with left or right associativity.

Question 3

Can Csly parse JSON files effectively?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can define lexer and parser rules for JSON, but it might be overkill compared to dedicated libraries like Newtonsoft.Json. Csly is best for custom DSLs where you need full control over the grammar.

Question 4

How to preserve comments in a Csly parser?

Accepted Answer

Use channels inspired by ANTLR by assigning lexemes to specific channels with attributes; however, this feature is currently in development on the dev branch and not yet stable in NuGet packages.

Question 5

Is Csly good for parsing configuration languages?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely, its embeddable design and support for expression parsing make it ideal for domain-specific configuration languages, allowing you to integrate custom syntax directly into .NET applications.

Question 6

What's the performance of Csly with large input files?

Accepted Answer

The generic lexer offers better performance than regex-based approaches, but for very large files, Csly's in-memory parsing may not be as optimized as streaming parsers, so benchmark for your use case.

CSLY

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