Separating Recognizer's folder and Namespace

[a-michelis]

Hello!

I'm using Rider 2022.2 EAP 4 to create a C# lexer/parser for my project, using the ANTLR4 plugin. Everything seems to work fine by tweaking the antlr4 settings of each .g4 file, but i notice a minor problem that i cannot overcome:

let's say the project's name is MyProject, located inside \path\to\Solution\MyProject. I placed the .g4 files of lexer and parser at \path\to\Solution\MyProject\Antlr. The namespace of the generated classes is MyProject.Parsing, with corresponding location \path\to\Solution\MyProject\Parsing.

In order to correctly place the generated classes, my config for .g4 files should be as follows:

Output directory where all output is generated : \path\to\Solution
Location of imported grammars : \path\to\Solution\MyProject\Antlr
Grammar file encoding : utf8
Package/namespace for the generated code : MyProject.Parsing
Language : CSharp

The above configuration works okay, but if the project's folder (MyProject) were different from project's base namespace (let's say project's base namespace isMyProject.Language with desired output namespace MyProject.Language.Parsing), the generator will not place the generated code to the correct location (the code will be placed at \path\to\Solution\MyProject\Language\Parsing.

Things are getting even worse if the project's folder has a different name whatsoever (code is not being placed to the project's tree at all).

Is there any way to "decouple" namespace and output directory, or some other workaround?

Thank you in advance.

[parrt]

hi. Interesting. I noticed some complexity when I looked at the gen directory thing in the code and couldn't quite figure out exactly what I was doing. The tool does have an option to say where all of the output goes, -o, but for backward compatibility reasons tax on the package directory structure UNLESS we use:

-Xexact-output-dir  all output goes into -o dir regardless of paths/package

When I search in the code it looks like the only place that is used is in building the plugin itself. haha.

I wonder if we shouldn't convert everything to use that exact outfit dirt thing to make it easier to understand we're output goes?
`

[a-michelis]

As I haven't interacted with the inner workings of the plugin -or ANTLR4 CLI tool for that matter- , my user experience consists of :

• Using AntlrVSIX on Visual Studio to automate the generation/inclusion process
• Using ANTLR V4 plugin's GUI to automate the generation/inclusion process
• Using ANTLR4 on my projects

I can somewhat understand what you're saying but i'm not even close to being confident enough to give any implementation suggestion whatsoever...

That said, as an end-user, my first time ever opening the configuration window hinted that Output directory where all output is generated were to serve as the generated code's output directory and not the project's or solution's directory.

I sincerely hope that this feedback can help a bit, as well as help me start diving in the plugin's inner workings.

If I can be of any help for testing or any other reason, I'm up for it!

[parrt]

Thanks. next hack session on the plugin, i'll take a look at this. we should simplify. @bjansen any thoughts?

[a-michelis]

Are there any updates on this matter?

My workaround for this, is choosing a completely different path for my generated files and then add them as link.

For a solution with tree like the following:

Solution_root
┣━━━Solution.sln
┣━━━src
┃   ┣━━━MyFancyProject
┃   ┃   ┣━━━MyFancyProject.csproj (Namespace: MyFancyProject)
┃   ┃   ┣━━━[...]
┃   ┃
┃   ┣━━━Language
┃   ┃   ┣━━━Language.csproj (Namespace: MyFancyProject.Language)
┃   ┃   ┣━━━[...]
┃   ┃   ┣━━━Antlr
┃   ┃   ┃   ┣━━━Grammar
┃   ┃   ┃   ┃   ┣━━━Lexer.g4
┃   ┃   ┃   ┃   ┣━━━Parser.g4
┃   ┃   ┃   ┣━━━Generated
┃   ┃   ┃   ┃   ┣━━━[This is where i want the Recognizers to be] (Namespace: MyFancyProject.Language.Antlr.Generated)

I use a completely different folder Solution_root/ANTLR4 as root of my generated files. So, my configuration is:

Output directory where all output is generated : Solution_root/ANTLR4
Location of imported grammars : Solution_root/src/Language/Antlr/Grammar
Grammar file encoding : utf8
Package/namespace for the generated code : MyFancyProject.Language.Antlr.Generated
Language : CSharp

After that, i add the following to my Language.csproj :

<Project>
    <!--- [...] --->
    <ItemGroup>
        <Compile Include="..\..\ANTLR4\MyFancyProject\Language\Antlr\Generated\*.cs">
            <Link>Antlr\Generated\%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
        </Compile>
    </ItemGroup>
</Project>

[parrt]

Sorry but I've been unable to get back to this project