The Bertha^TM Parser Generator

The ^TM JAR Executable (Version 1.04: 05-Aug-1999.)

Requires a Java^TM 2 (JDK^TM 1.2) run-time environment (JRE) implementation, such as the one offered by Sun Microsystems, to be available on the host machine. Under the Sun Java^TM 2 JRE, may be invoked with the command:

  java -jar bertha1.jar

If you are using a Java^TM 2 environment from another vendor, please consult the tool documentation to find out how to execute bertha1.jar.

The ^TM Win32 Executable (Version 1.04: 05-Aug-1999.)

This version was built using Microsoft's JEXEGEN utility, and requires the Microsoft virtual machine to be installed on your system. The build version for the VM should be at least 5.00.3167; you may determine this version by invoking

  jview

from the MS-DOS command prompt. You may always download the latest version of the VM directly from Microsoft. As you may guess, itself is invoked by typing in

  bertha1

on the command line, as long at it is on your PATH.

The ^TM Documentation (Updated: 05-Aug-1999.)

In keeping with software engineering tradition, you should find this document next to useless. It is so small that I did not even bother compressing it, although it does get bigger every month... :) Whenever in doubt, consult the Java sources for , as they are always right!

The document does contain one useful info-nugget: the revision history for this glorious product...

The ^TM Source Code (Version 1.04: 05-Aug-1999.)

These files are provided for your single-stepping pleasure, should you wish to understand what makes , along with LALR(1) parser generators such as bison and yacc, perform their magic.

The ^TM Sample Grammars (Updated: 23-Jun-1999.)

This is probably the most useful part of the distribution (aside from bertha.jar, of course) and consists of several grammars – always with a .bertha extension – of varying complexities. Each .bertha file may be submitted to on the command-line, yielding a corresponding .java source file which may then be compiled and executed in the usual manner.

Note that future (2.x) versions of will support a slightly different syntax and semantics and allow the user to specify arbitrary partial orders of productions. (The 1.x versions support a linear order that is consulted only to resolve action conflicts.)