# Documentation
Abackus crate adds a layer on top of [earlgrey crate](https://crates.io/crates/earlgrey) to simplify writing a **grammar**. You can simply use an EBNF style String instead of manually adding rules.
You can describe your grammar like this:
```rust
let grammar = r#"
S := S '+' N | N ;
N := '[0-9]' ;
"#;
ParserBuilder::default()
.plug_terminal("[0-9]", |n| "1234567890".contains(n))
.plug_terminal("[+]", |c| c == "+")
.into_parser("S")
```
Instead of the more verbose:
```rust
.nonterm("S")
.nonterm("N")
.terminal("[+]", |c| c == "+")
.terminal("[0-9]", |n| "1234567890".contains(n))
.rule("S", &["S", "[+]", "N"])
.rule("S", &["N"])
.rule("N", &["[0-9]"])
.into_grammar("S")
.unwrap();
earlgrey::EarleyParser::new(g)
```
### How it works
Underneath the covers an `earlgrey::EarleyParser` is used to build a parser for EBNF grammar. (For details you can check `earlgrey/ebnf.rs`). That parser is then used to build a final parser for the grammar provided by the user.
## Example
```rust
// NOTE: extract from abackus/examples/ebnftree.rs
fn main() {
let grammar = r#"
expr := expr ('+'|'-') term | term ;
term := term ('*'|'/') factor | factor ;
factor := '-' factor | power ;
power := ufact '^' factor | ufact ;
ufact := ufact '!' | group ;
group := num | '(' expr ')' ;
"#;
// Build a parser for our grammar and while at it, plug in an
// evaluator to extract the resulting tree as S-expressions.
use std::str::FromStr;
let trif = abackus::ParserBuilder::default()
.plug_terminal("num", |n| f64::from_str(n).is_ok())
.sexprificator(&grammar, "expr");
// Read some input from command-line
let input = std::env::args().skip(1).
collect::<Vec<String>>().join(" ");
// Print resulting parse trees
match trif(&mut tokenizer(input.chars())) {
Ok(trees) => for t in trees { println!("{}", t.print()); },
Err(e) => println!("{:?}", e)
}
}
```