From romain.francois at dbmail.com  Fri Jun 19 08:17:05 2009
From: romain.francois at dbmail.com (Romain Francois)
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:17:05 +0200
Subject: [Rd] R_parseVector and syntax error [was: error messages while
 parsing with rniParse]
In-Reply-To: <4A3B08AE.5080405@stats.uwo.ca>
References: <4A36715A.2020003@dbmail.com>	<63D1BDD5-D697-4F84-96A8-CD89AE8C4113@r-project.org>
	<4A3A8141.6080401@dbmail.com> <4A3AAB4D.8030100@stats.uwo.ca>
	<EFC2C284-8863-4E5E-85CF-4AB223238302@r-project.org>
	<4A3B08AE.5080405@stats.uwo.ca>
Message-ID: <4A3B2D61.5050804@dbmail.com>

Duncan Murdoch wrote:
>
> Simon Urbanek wrote:
>> On Jun 18, 2009, at 17:02 , Duncan Murdoch wrote:
>>  
>>> Romain Francois wrote:
>>>    
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> [I'm redirecting this here from stats-rosuda-devel]
>>>>
>>>> When parsing R code through R_parseVector and the code generates 
>>>> an  error (syntax error), is there a way to grab the error.
>>>> It looks like yyerror populates the buffer "R_ParseErrorMsg", but  
>>>> then the variable is not part of the public api.
>>>>
>>>> Would it be possible to add yet another entry point to the parser  
>>>> that would basically wrap R_parseVector so that it would have an  
>>>> extra char* argument that would bring back the error message if  
>>>> there is an error?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>       
>>> I would oppose that.  Suggest ways to reduce the complexity of the  
>>> parser interface and I'd be interested.  It's a nightmare to make  
>>> any changes there.
>>>
>>> You can always call the R function wrapped in try(), so it's not as  
>>> though this would give you anything that you don't already have  
>>> access to.
>>>     
>>
>>
>> I'm not quite following - we're talking about R_ParseVector in C 
>> code  so the point is that the C code gets access to the error 
>> message so it  can relay it to the user. 
>
> I understood that.  But the C code can get the error message by 
> evaluating an R expression and looking at the result.
>
>> There are no R-level functions involved  here. The issue here for the 
>> moment is that this information is  retrievable at R level but not 
>> (officially) at the C level. 
>
> I wouldn't mind exposing the underlying information in a clean way, 
> but the string in R_ParseVector isn't all a front end should get.

Great. Let's do that.
Is a function that simply returns some of the static variables used by 
bison clean enough ?


> At the time of an R_ParseVector syntax error, the parser knows what 
> token it couldn't handle, and it knows its classification, and the 
> location in the file where it came from.   Not all of that makes it 
> through to the error message.
>> As for  reducing complexity - technically, there is no complexity 
>> added since  all this is already in place ... [adding extra char * 
>> argument to  ParseVector may not be the best way but that's not what 
>> I'm arguing  for].   
>
> It was what I was arguing against.
>
> Duncan Murdoch
>
>> Or am I missing something?
>
>> Cheers,
>> S
>>
>>
>>  
>>>> Romain
>>>>
>>>> Simon Urbanek wrote:
>>>>
>>>>      
>>>>> On Jun 15, 2009, at 12:05 , Romain Francois wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>        
>>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In JRI, is there a way to get the error message that is 
>>>>>> generated  by the
>>>>>> parser through rniParse
>>>>>> For example, if I have this :
>>>>>>
>>>>>> long y = re.rniParse( "rnorm( 10 ))", 1 ) ;
>>>>>>
>>>>>> this obviously generates a parse error, so y will be the same as
>>>>>> (R_NilValue) :
>>>>>>
>>>>>> long null_id = re.rniEval( re.rniParse( "NULL", 1 ), 0 ) ;
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I guess the underlying question is : "Is R_ParseErrorMsg exposed to
>>>>>> JRI".
>>>>>>
>>>>>>           
>>>>> AFAICT R_ParseErrorMsg and friends are not exposed by the R API -  
>>>>> they are not accessible outside, so they cannot be use by JRI. It  
>>>>> would be nice if there was a way of accessing that info, but R  
>>>>> doesn't currently support that.
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>> Simon
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>        
>>>>>> The reason is I would like to bring back the message as part of an
>>>>>> exception generated when the code does not parse.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Romain
>>>>>>
>>>>>>           
>>>>
>>>>       
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>>>
>>>
>>>     
>
>
>


-- 
Romain Francois
Independent R Consultant
+33(0) 6 28 91 30 30
http://romainfrancois.blog.free.fr



[Rd] R_parseVector and syntax error [was: error messages while parsing with rniParse]
Romain Francois