Comparison of parser generators

Regular languages - Regular languages can be matched by a state machine constructed from a regular expression. - Regular languages can express constructs like A follows B, Either A or B, A followed by zero or more instances of B. - Regular languages cannot express constructs that require consistency between non-adjacent elements or recursive nesting. - Regular languages cannot handle problems like checking correctly-nested parentheses. - Examples of regular language parser generators include .NET CLR, Free, GNU GPL, C# Lex, DFA, Mixed. Context-free languages - Context-free languages can be matched by a sequence of replacement rules. - Context-free languages can handle the concept of recursive nesting. - Context-free grammars are purely local and cannot handle non-local analysis. - Context-free grammars can be extended with limited context-sensitivity using user-written code. - Examples of context-free language parser generators include .NET CLR, Free, Apache 2.0, CookCC, DFA, Java. Deterministic context-free languages - Deterministic context-free languages are a subset of context-free languages. - Deterministic context-free languages can be efficiently parsed by deterministic pushdown automata. - Examples of programming languages that support deterministic context-free languages include C, C++, C#, F#, Java, Ada, Object Pascal, Delphi, Modula-2, Oberon, Ruby, Swift, Unicon, Visual Basic .NET. - Parser generators for deterministic context-free languages include LR(?), LL(?), LALR(?), SLR(?). - The generated parsers can be used for partial parsing and follow CPOL 1.0 license. General context-free, conjunctive, or boolean languages - General context-free, conjunctive, or boolean languages are compared in a table. - Parser generators for these languages are free and use licenses like Apache 2.0. - Examples of programming languages supported by these parser generators include C++, C#, Java, Visual Basic .NET. - These parser generators are compared with context-sensitive grammars. - Ragel State Machine Compiler is mentioned as a related tool. Other parser generator tools - Other parser generator tools are mentioned in various references. - These tools include Drat!, Narwhal, POSIX, Windows, Nearley, Earley, JavaScript, Nemerle.Peg, Lambda PEG, PyPy rlib, Rats!, Rekex, PEG Parser?, PHP, and more. - These tools support different programming languages and use various licenses like MIT, BSD, GNU LGPL, and Apache 2.0. - Some tools are specifically designed for packrat parsing. - References and sources are provided for further reading.