jzimmerman/langcc

Health v2 · maintenance only

Flags: no_releases

Adoption not part of the score

1728 stars · 61 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

langcc is a next-generation compiler compiler that generates efficient linear-time parsers and full compiler frontends (AST definitions, traversals, pretty-printing) from a single declarative .lang grammar file. It extends canonical LR parsing with recursive-descent actions, attribute constraints, and continuation-passing style transformations, and ships with a companion datatype compiler (datacc) for C++ algebraic datatypes.

Use cases

• generate a parser for a new programming language
• replace lex and yacc with a more powerful grammar tool
• generate AST definitions and traversals from a grammar spec
• debug LR grammar conflicts with concrete example inputs
• generate C++ algebraic datatypes including sum types
• prototype compiler frontends for research languages

When to choose

• building a compiler or interpreter frontend in C++
• your grammar is beyond LR(1) and yacc rejects it
• you want declarative grammar specs without embedded C++ actions
• you need fast, linear-time parsers for industrial languages

When to avoid

• you need a parser in a language other than C++
• you need a mature ecosystem with active maintenance and community support
• you only need a simple regex-based lexer
• you target dynamic or runtime-extensible grammars

Facets

cli-tool · maturity stable

parser compiler developer-tools compilers programming-languages parsers developer-tools cpp cli compiler-compiler lr-parsing lex-yacc-replacement ast-generation grammar-specification datatypes self-hosting code-generation linux macos

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