The Java Tree Builder

Sponsor: DARPA

The Java Tree Building (JTB) is a frontend for The Java Compiler from Sun Microsystems. JTB allows easy building and interaction with syntax trees using the Visitor design pattern. JTB takes a plain JavaCC grammar file as input and automatically generates the following:

• A set of syntax tree classes based on the productions in the grammar, all with accept methods, for utilization of the Visitor design pattern.
• A Visitor superclass whose default methods simply visit the children of the current node.
• A JavaCC grammar with the proper annotations to build a syntax tree during parsing.

New visitors which subclass Visitor can then override the default methods and perform various operations on and manipulate the generated syntax tree. JTB is being used in research and product development around the world.