nearley vs chevrotain vs peggy vs jison
JavaScript Parsing Libraries Comparison
1 Year
nearleychevrotainpeggyjisonSimilar Packages:
What's JavaScript Parsing Libraries?

JavaScript parsing libraries are essential tools for interpreting and transforming code written in various programming languages or domain-specific languages (DSLs). They provide developers with the ability to define grammars and parse input strings into structured data, enabling the creation of interpreters, compilers, and other tools that require understanding of syntax and semantics. These libraries differ in their design philosophies, performance characteristics, and ease of use, catering to a variety of parsing needs in web development and beyond.

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nearley3,131,9623,658-1984 years agoMIT
chevrotain1,559,1852,5661.35 MB482 years agoApache-2.0
peggy172,3841,023561 kB423 months agoMIT
jison54,3044,363-1618 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: nearley vs chevrotain vs peggy vs jison

Performance

  • nearley:

    Nearley excels in handling complex and ambiguous grammars, but this flexibility can come at a performance cost. It is optimized for speed but may not match Chevrotain in scenarios requiring extreme performance.

  • chevrotain:

    Chevrotain is designed for high performance, capable of parsing large inputs quickly due to its efficient implementation of the parsing algorithm. It minimizes backtracking and optimizes the parsing process, making it suitable for real-time applications.

  • peggy:

    Peggy offers good performance for most use cases, leveraging modern JavaScript features. It is designed to be efficient while maintaining readability and ease of use, making it suitable for a wide range of applications.

  • jison:

    Jison generates parsers that are generally efficient for small to medium-sized grammars. However, performance may degrade with highly complex grammars due to the inherent limitations of the LALR parsing technique it employs.

Grammar Complexity

  • nearley:

    Nearley supports a wide range of grammar complexities, including ambiguous grammars. It allows for more expressive parsing strategies, making it suitable for intricate language definitions.

  • chevrotain:

    Chevrotain supports complex grammars, including those with advanced features like semantic predicates and context-sensitive parsing. This makes it ideal for building parsers for sophisticated programming languages or DSLs.

  • peggy:

    Peggy is designed for ease of use and supports a variety of grammar types, including context-free grammars. It strikes a balance between complexity and usability, making it a good choice for custom languages.

  • jison:

    Jison is best suited for simpler grammars and may struggle with highly complex or ambiguous language constructs. It is more straightforward to use for projects with less demanding parsing requirements.

Ease of Use

  • nearley:

    Nearley is user-friendly and allows for intuitive grammar definitions. Its documentation and examples make it accessible for developers looking to implement complex parsing without extensive boilerplate code.

  • chevrotain:

    Chevrotain has a steeper learning curve due to its extensive feature set and flexibility. However, once mastered, it provides powerful tools for building sophisticated parsers.

  • peggy:

    Peggy is designed with modern JavaScript developers in mind, offering a clean and straightforward API. Its syntax is easy to understand, making it a good choice for those new to parsing.

  • jison:

    Jison is known for its simplicity and ease of use, allowing developers to quickly define grammars and generate parsers with minimal setup. This makes it a great choice for beginners or rapid prototyping.

Community and Support

  • nearley:

    Nearley has a vibrant community and is well-documented, making it easy to find resources and examples. Its active development ensures that it stays up-to-date with modern JavaScript practices.

  • chevrotain:

    Chevrotain has a growing community and is actively maintained, with extensive documentation and examples available. This support can be invaluable for developers facing challenges during implementation.

  • peggy:

    Peggy benefits from a modern approach and has a supportive community. Its documentation is thorough, and there are many examples available, making it easier for developers to get started.

  • jison:

    Jison has been around for a while and has a stable user base, but its community is smaller compared to others. Documentation is available, but may not be as comprehensive as more modern libraries.

Extensibility

  • nearley:

    Nearley is designed to be extensible, allowing developers to create custom rules and integrate additional features easily. This flexibility is a key advantage for projects requiring tailored parsing solutions.

  • chevrotain:

    Chevrotain is highly extensible, allowing developers to create custom parsing strategies and integrate with other tools and libraries. This makes it suitable for building specialized parsers tailored to specific needs.

  • peggy:

    Peggy offers a modular approach, enabling developers to extend its functionality with plugins or custom parsing strategies. This makes it adaptable for various parsing needs.

  • jison:

    Jison provides basic extensibility through its grammar definitions but may not support advanced customization options as effectively as Chevrotain or Nearley.

How to Choose: nearley vs chevrotain vs peggy vs jison
  • nearley:

    Opt for Nearley if you need a powerful parser that supports ambiguous grammars and offers advanced features like context-free grammars. It is particularly useful for projects that require flexibility and the ability to handle complex parsing scenarios without sacrificing performance.

  • chevrotain:

    Choose Chevrotain if you need a high-performance parser that supports complex grammars and requires fine-grained control over parsing behavior. It is particularly suitable for applications that demand speed and efficiency, such as language servers or real-time code analysis tools.

  • peggy:

    Use Peggy if you are looking for a modern parsing library that is easy to use and integrates well with JavaScript's async features. It is a good choice for projects that require a straightforward syntax and support for parsing DSLs or custom languages.

  • jison:

    Select Jison if you prefer a parser generator that is easy to use and integrates seamlessly with JavaScript. It is ideal for projects where you want to quickly generate parsers from a grammar specification, especially for simple to moderately complex languages.

README for nearley

nearley ↗️

JS.ORG npm version

nearley is a simple, fast and powerful parsing toolkit. It consists of:

  1. A powerful, modular DSL for describing languages
  2. An efficient, lightweight Earley parser
  3. Loads of tools, editor plug-ins, and other goodies!

nearley is a streaming parser with support for catching errors gracefully and providing all parsings for ambiguous grammars. It is compatible with a variety of lexers (we recommend moo). It comes with tools for creating tests, railroad diagrams and fuzzers from your grammars, and has support for a variety of editors and platforms. It works in both node and the browser.

Unlike most other parser generators, nearley can handle any grammar you can define in BNF (and more!). In particular, while most existing JS parsers such as PEGjs and Jison choke on certain grammars (e.g. left recursive ones), nearley handles them easily and efficiently by using the Earley parsing algorithm.

nearley is used by a wide variety of projects:

nearley is an npm staff pick.

Documentation

Please visit our website https://nearley.js.org to get started! You will find a tutorial, detailed reference documents, and links to several real-world examples to get inspired.

Contributing

Please read this document before working on nearley. If you are interested in contributing but unsure where to start, take a look at the issues labeled "up for grabs" on the issue tracker, or message a maintainer (@kach or @tjvr on Github).

nearley is MIT licensed.

A big thanks to Nathan Dinsmore for teaching me how to Earley, Aria Stewart for helping structure nearley into a mature module, and Robin Windels for bootstrapping the grammar. Additionally, Jacob Edelman wrote an experimental JavaScript parser with nearley and contributed ideas for EBNF support. Joshua T. Corbin refactored the compiler to be much, much prettier. Bojidar Marinov implemented postprocessors-in-other-languages. Shachar Itzhaky fixed a subtle bug with nullables.

Citing nearley

If you are citing nearley in academic work, please use the following BibTeX entry.

@misc{nearley,
    author = "Kartik Chandra and Tim Radvan",
    title  = "{nearley}: a parsing toolkit for {JavaScript}",
    year   = {2014},
    doi    = {10.5281/zenodo.3897993},
    url    = {https://github.com/kach/nearley}
}