Copyright © 2008-2014 Orlando Hill
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
1. Introduction
As programmers, we are required to make use of data that is presented in a variety of formats. In order to extract and manipulate the desired information, we need the ability to navigate the structure of the language the data is written in. Unless the language is very simple, we must use a parser that understands the language and gives us the data in a form we can more readily use.
Manually creating parsers can be boring and time consuming. It is, therefore, common to use a use parser generator to do the grunt work of constructing the parser. This is where Waxeye comes in handy.
2. Getting Started
2.1. Downloading
You can download the current official release of Waxeye from Sourceforge. If you want to get the very latest version of Waxeye’s source, you can download it from GitHub using the Git version control system.
2.2. Requirements
There are no external dependencies needed to run a pre-built version of Waxeye. If you build from source, you’ll need Racket.
To use a generated parser, you need a supported programming language to run it from.
2.3. Installation
2.3.1. Unix and MacOSX
-
Extract the files of the distribution.
-
Copy the waxeye directory to where you wish to install it.
-
Add the bin/waxeye binary to your search path. e.g. If you have
~/bin
in your PATH and installed waxeye to /usr/local/waxeye then you might do the following.
ln -s /usr/local/waxeye/bin/waxeye ~/bin/
2.3.2. Windows
-
Extract the files of the distribution.
-
Copy the waxeye directory to where you wish to install it.
2.4. Running
Currently, Waxeye is used from a command-line interface. You can use it as a command-line tool or, as part of a script or build-system. There are plans to develop a graphical tool at a later stage.
2.4.1. Unix and MacOSX
Run Waxeye by executing the waxeye
binary.
2.4.2. Windows
Use a command prompt to run waxeye.exe
.
3. Basic Concepts
3.1. What is a parser?
When we want to understand data that has been written in a language of interest (L), we need to break our data into units of the language. This process of breaking our input into different parts, based on the structure of L, is called parsing. A program used for parsing is called a parser.
3.2. What is the result of a parser?
Once your input has been parsed, you need the result to be presented in a from that is easy to understand and manipulate. Since the input was organized based on the hierarchical structure of the language, it makes sense that the output of the parser mimic this structure. The most effective form to do this with is a tree.
Such a tree is known as an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST). A Waxeye parser will automatically give you an AST that represents your input. The structure of this AST is based on the structure of your language’s grammar.
3.3. What is a parser generator?
If L is simple, it is easy for us to use our programming lanugage of choice to, manually, write a parser for L. However, as the structural complexity of L increases, so too, does the size and complexity of the parser program. Writing and maintaining a large parser, by hand, can quickly become a tedious and laborious job. Thankfully, we can use a parser generator to automate the work of creating a parser so we can focus on other problems.
A parser generator is a tool designed to help software developers automate the process of creating a parser. Just like compilers and assemblers, a parser generator takes a description of a program, automatically does the boring work for you and gives you a transformed program as output. Each tool accepts input in one language (L1), performs various transformations and creates output in another language (L2).
L1 --> Compiler --> L2
L1 --> Assembler --> L2
L1 --> Parser Generator --> L2
The key difference between the three tools is the level of abstraction held by the input and output languages. The assembler works at the lowest level by taking assembly files and producing machine code. The compiler works above the assembler by taking a more abstract programming language and generating assembly files or machine code directly. Finally, the parser generator has the highest level of abstraction and transforms a grammar file into programming language source code for a compiler to process.
3.4. What is a grammar file?
We can define a language as the set of strings it contains. While it is sometimes possible to specify a language simply by enumerating all of its strings, such an approach has significant drawbacks. Trying to write each string in our language could be very time consuming and, potentially, take forever.
Suppose we need to read time information as part of a larger program. In a
trivial case, the time information may be presented as two digits for the
hours, a colon :
, and then two digits for the minutes.
00:00, 00:01, 00:02, ... 14:23, 14:24, 14:25, ... 23:57, 23:58, 23:59
We could describe our time language this way but, writing all 1,440 possible hour/minute combinations wouldn’t be much fun. Not to mention how bad things would be if we extended our language to include date information.
As another example, consider the language that consists of all strings of one or more alphabet character.
a, b, c, ... z, aa, ab, ac, ... az, aaa, aab, aac, ...
Even worse than our time example, this language is infinite. It would be impossible for us to explicitly list every string in the language.
If we want to describe such languages, we need a notation that is more abstract than simply writing out strings. We call this notation a grammar and the file that contains it a grammar file.
4. Waxeye Grammars
To generate a parser for a language, you must supply the parser generator with
a grammar file that describes the language. Waxeye grammar files are written as
text documents and are, by convention, given the .waxeye
file extension.
A Waxeye grammar consists of a set of rule definitions, called non-terminals. Together, the non-terminals succinctly describe the syntax of the language. By default, the first non-terminal is considered the starting point of the language definition.
4.1. Non-terminals
Non-terminals are defined in three parts; a name, a rule type and one or more grammar expressions.
The most common non-terminal type is the tree constructing non-terminal. A tree constructing non-terminal has the following form:
Where Name matches [a-zA-Z_] *[a-zA-Z0-9_-]
.
The other common non-terminal type is the void non-terminal. The result of a void non-terminal is not included in the AST that is constructed by the parser. To define a void non-terminal, use this form:
4.2. Expressions
The most important part of each non-terminal definition is the set of expressions it contains. Grammar expressions come in different forms and have their own meanings. Places where an expression can be contained within another expression are denoted with an e.
4.2.1. Atomic Expressions
Wildcard
.
Matches any character from the input.
Literal
'text'
Matches text
in the input.
Case-insensitive Literal
"text"
Matches text
in the input while ignores case. This is equivalent to the
expression [tT][eE][xX][tT]
but, is much more readable.
Character Class
[a-z_-]
Character-class that matches either a lower-case English character, _
or
-
.
Non-terminal
NT
References the non-terminal named NT
.
Parentheses
(
e)
Raises the precedence of the expression e.
4.2.2. Prefix Expressions
Void
:
e
Doesn’t include the result of e when building the AST.
Closure
*
e
Puts e within a closure.
Plus
+
e
Puts e within a plus-closure.
Optional
?
e
Puts e within an optional.
Negative Check
!
e
Checks that e fails.
Positive Check
&
e
Checks that e succeeds.
4.2.3. Sequence Expressions
e1 e2
Matches e1 and e2 in sequence.
4.2.4. Alternation Expressions
e1|
e2
Tries to match e1 and, if that fails, tries to match e2.
4.3. Precedence
In Waxeye grammars, some expressions can have other expressions nested within them. When we use parentheses, we are explicitly denoting the nesting structure of the expressions.
At times, this can seem needlessly verbose. In many cases, we are able to omit the parentheses in favor of a shorter notation. We do this by exploiting the precedence of each expression type.
The precedence of an expression determines the priority it has when resolving implicitly nested expressions. Each expression type has a level of precedence relative to all other types. There are four different precedence levels in Waxeye grammars.
4.3.1. Level 4
The highest precedence is held by the atomic expressions. Because these expressions cannot, themselves, contain expressions, there is no need to consider which expressions are nested within them.
4.3.2. Level 3
The prefix expressions hold the next precedence level. Their nesting is resolved directly after the atomic expressions.
4.3.3. Level 2
Sequences of expressions are formed once the atomic and prefix expressions have been resolved.
4.3.4. Level 1
Finally, once all other expressions have been resolved, the different choices of the alternation expression are resolved.
4.4. Pruning Non-terminals
Sometimes, creating a new AST node will give us more information than we need. We might want to create a new AST node, only if doing so will tell us something interesting about our input. If the additional node gives us nothing of interest, our tree could be said to contain vertical noise.
To make it easier to process the AST, we can remove this vertical noise by using the pruning non-terminal type. This non-terminal type has the following form:
When Name has successfully parsed a string, one of three things will happen, depending on the number of results to be included from Name's expressions.
-
If there are no expression results to be included, nothing new will be added to the AST.
-
If there is one expression result to be included, that result will take the place of the Name AST node.
-
Otherwise, a new Name AST node will be created, just like a tree constructing non-terminal.
To help understand how this works, consider an example from a simple arithmetic grammar.
If we use the Product rule to parse the string 3*7
, we get a tree with
Product at the root and, below that, a Number, a *
character and then
another Number.
Product
-> Number
| 3
| *
-> Number
| 7
However, if the Product rule parses a string with just one Number in it, we
will get a tree that is slightly bigger than we need. Parsing the string 5
produces the following tree.
Product
-> Number
| 5
In this case, having a Product node at the root of the AST isn’t necessary. If we want to, we can rewrite the original grammar to use a pruning non-terminal.
Now, when we use Product to parse 3*7
, we will get the same result as
before but, when parsing 5
, we get an AST with Number as the root.
Number
| 5
As a second example, let’s look at a grammar for nested parentheses.
Here are some example inputs and their resulting ASTs:
Input: b
A
-> B
| b
Input: (b)
A
-> A
-> B
| b
Input: (((b)))
A
-> A
-> A
-> A
-> B
| b
Unless we want to know the number of parentheses matched, trees like these contain more information than we need. Again, we are able to solve this by rewriting the grammar using a pruning non-terminal.
This time, parsing the input (((b)))
gives us a much shorter tree.
B
| b
4.5. Comments
There are two types of comments in Waxeye grammars; single-line and multi-line.
4.5.1. Single-line
Single-line comments start at the first #
outside of an atomic expression and
extend until the end of the line.
4.5.2. Multi-line
Multi-line comments are opened at the first /*
outside of an atomic
expression and closed with a */
.
As an added convenience for when editing a grammar, multi-line comments can be nested within each other. This is handy when you want to comment out a section of the grammar that already contains a comment.
5. Using Waxeye
This chapter will show you how to setup Waxeye for your programming language.
It covers language specific installation requirements and presents some basic
boilerplate code to get you started. You can find copies of this boilerplate
code in src/example/
. I use $WAXEYE_HOME
to refer to the location where you
have installed the files of the Waxeye distribution.
The example grammar we’ll be using can be found in grammars/num.waxeye
. You
may wish to copy it to the directory you’re working in so you can experiment
with extending and modifying the grammar.
Once setup and run, the boilerplate example will use the parser you generated
to parse the string 42
and print the AST it creates.
Num
| 4
| 2
5.1. Using Waxeye from C
Waxeye’s C runtime is currently supported on unix platforms, MacOSX, and iOS.
5.1.1. Install
To install the C runtime, you need to compile it and, optionally, install the header files and library in your system search paths.
To compile the runtime, perform the command make lib
from within the src/c
directory of your waxeye installation.
cd $WAXEYE_HOME/src/c
make lib
make clean
To install the header files and library in your search paths, you could copy the files directly but, creating symbolic links to them will make upgrading easier.
sudo ln -s $WAXEYE_HOME/lib/libwaxeye.a /usr/local/lib/
sudo ln -s $WAXEYE_HOME/src/c/include/waxeye.h /usr/local/include/
sudo ln -s $WAXEYE_HOME/src/c/include/waxeye /usr/local/include/
5.1.2. Build for iOS
Instead of building just for your current architecture, you can also build a
library for iOS by running make lib-ios
on a Mac with a recent version of
Xcode installed. This will compile a runtime for ARMv7, ARMv7S, ARM64, X86_64
and i386 as a fat binary to $WAXEYE_HOME/lib/libwaxeye_ios.a
.
5.1.3. Generate Parser
waxeye -g c . num.waxeye
5.1.4. Use Parser
5.1.5. Run
If you installed the headers and library in your system path:
gcc example.c parser.c -lwaxeye -o example
Otherwise:
FLAGS="-I $WAXEYE_HOME/src/c/include/ -L $WAXEYE_HOME/lib/"
gcc $FLAGS example.c parser.c -lwaxeye -o example
Finally,
./example
5.2. Using Waxeye from Java
Waxeye’s Java runtime is compatible with version 1.5 and 1.6 of the JRE. It should also be possible to use Waxeye with JRE versions 1.3 and 1.4 of by retrofitting the classes with Retroweaver or Retrotranslator.
5.2.1. Install
To use a Waxeye parser from Java, you need Waxeye’s Java runtime in your
classpath. The required classes are in the Jar file lib/waxeye.jar
.
5.2.2. Generate Parser
waxeye -g java . num.waxeye
5.2.3. Use Parser
5.2.4. Run
javac -cp .:$WAXEYE_HOME/lib/waxeye.jar Example.java Parser.java Type.java
java -cp .:$WAXEYE_HOME/lib/waxeye.jar Example
5.3. Using Waxeye from Javascript
Waxeye parsers generated in Javascript should be able to run from any modern Javascript environment. The examples given here will use Node.js.
5.3.1. Install
To install Waxeye’s Javascript runtime library with Node.js, use the following commands on Unix and MacOS systems.
mkdir -p ~/.node_libraries
ln -s /usr/local/waxeye/src/javascript/dist/waxeye.js ~/.node_libraries/
5.3.2. Generate Parser
waxeye -g javascript . num.waxeye
5.3.3. Use Parser
5.3.4. Run
node nodejs_example.js
5.4. Using Waxeye from Python
Waxeye’s Python runtime has been tested with Python version 2.5.1 and is intended to work with 2.x.x versions of Python.
5.4.1. Install
To install Waxeye’s Python runtime, you need to run the setup.py
script from
the src/python
directory.
cd $WAXEYE_HOME/src/python
python setup.py build
sudo python setup.py install
rm -rf build/
5.4.2. Generate Parser
waxeye -g python . num.waxeye
5.4.3. Use Parser
5.4.4. Run
python example.py
5.5. Using Waxeye from Ruby
Waxeye’s Ruby runtime is compatible with Ruby version 1.8.6.
5.5.1. Install
Install the Waxeye gem; either from Rubyforge or, from the gem file in lib
.
# Install the Waxeye gem from Rubyforge
sudo gem install waxeye
5.5.2. Generate Parser
waxeye -g ruby . num.waxeye
5.5.3. Use Parser
5.5.4. Run
ruby example.rb
5.6. Using Waxeye from Scheme
Waxeye’s Scheme runtime is compatible with Racket.
5.6.1. Install
Install the waxeye collection where Racket can find it.
# Install the Waxeye collection; change to your install paths as needed
sudo ln -s /usr/local/waxeye/src/racket/waxeye /usr/local/racket/lib/racket/collects/
5.6.2. Generate Parser
waxeye -g racket . num.waxeye
5.6.3. Use Parser
5.6.4. Run from Racket
racket -t example.rkt
6. Using ASTs and Parse Errors
Since just printing an Abstract Syntax Tree isn’t very interesting, let’s have a look at how to access the information the ASTs contain.
When you use a Waxeye parser, the result will be one of two things. If the parser successfully parsed the input, the result will be an AST. If the input doesn’t match the syntax of the language, the result will be a parse error.
6.1. ASTs
ASTs come in three different forms; tree, char and empty.
-
A tree AST contains a type, a list of children and, the start and end position in the input.
-
A char AST contains a single character and has no children.
-
An empty AST simply signifies that parsing was successful. If your starting non-terminal is voided or is pruning and had no children, you will get an empty AST.
6.1.1. Using an AST node as string
If a given AST node will only ever have char children, you may wish to treat that node as a single string.
From C
From Java
From Javascript
From Python
From Ruby
From Scheme
6.2. Parse Errors
A parse error contains information about where the input is invalid and hints about what is wrong with it.
6.3. Determining the result type
6.3.1. From C
6.3.2. From Java
6.3.3. From Javascript
6.3.4. From Python
6.3.5. From Ruby
6.3.6. From Scheme
7. Example: A Calculator
Now that we know how to write grammars, generate parsers and manipulate AST, we can put these skills together to build a small language interpreter. In this chapter, we create a command-line calculator.
Our calculator reads a line of input, parses it as an arithmetic expression and computes the result. The arithmetic language supports the following constructs.
-
floating point numbers
-
binary operators +,-,*,/
-
unary negation
-
parentheses
7.1. Calculator in C
7.2. Calculator in Java
7.3. Calculator in Javascript
7.4. Calculator in Python
7.5. Calculator in Ruby
7.6. Calculator in Scheme
8. Grammar Testing
9. Modular Grammars
It is sometimes desirable to have a grammar split across multiple files and to have a final grammar built from those files. We can do this by using a modular grammar.
Having our grammar split in this way provides us with the opportunity to manipulate the definition of the non-terminals and, in the process, create new languages. Depending on how we compose our final grammar, we can create vastly different languages from the same base grammars and only need to change the one modular grammar.
One of the biggest advantages of modular grammars is that they make it very easy to embed one language within another. Many languages can be thought of in this way. Prime examples are when a programming language is embedded within XML or HTML. Or, going the other way, you could embed a data language like SQL within a programming language.
There are also cases when a language’s syntax changes subtly over time. We want to have parsers for each version of the language but without duplicating large parts of our grammars.
9.1. Grammar Composition
A modular grammar is made up of expressions that pull together non-modular grammars. Some modular expressions can have other expressions nested within them. An expression is one of the following:
-
"grammar.waxeye"
A path to a .waxeye file. This path should either be relative to the modular grammar or be an absolute path. -
(rename modular-exp (old-name . new-name) …)
Renames the specified non-terminals with their new names. -
(only modular-exp non-term …)
Includes only the listed non-terminals. -
(all-except modular-exp non-term …)
Includes all non-terminals except those listed. -
(prefix prefix modular-exp)
Prefixes the names of non-terminals from modular-exp. -
(prefix-only prefix modular-exp non-term …)
Prefixes only the listed non-terminals. -
(prefix-all-except prefix modular-exp non-term …)
Prefixes all non-terminals except those listed. -
(join modular-exp …)
Combines the results of multiple modular expressions into a single expression. Not needed at the top-level.
10. Waxeye Options
waxeye [ <option> ... ] <grammar>
where <option> is one of
Waxeye modes:
/ -g <language> <dir> : Generate
| -i : Interpret
\ -t <test> : Test
Grammar options:
-m : Modular Grammar - default: false
-s <start> : Starting non-terminal - default: first non-terminal
Parser options:
-c <comment> : Header comment for generated files - default: none
-e <eof> : Check parser consumes all input - default: true
-n <namespace> : Module or package namespace - default: none
-p <prefix> : Name prefix for generated files - default: none
Misc options:
--debug : Activates debug information
--version : Prints version number and copyright notice
--help, -h : Show this help
-- : Do not treat any remaining argument as a switch (at this level)
/|\ Brackets indicate mutually exclusive options.
Multiple single-letter switches can be combined after one `-'; for
example: `-h-' is the same as `-h --'
10.1. Waxeye Modes
grammar
The grammar file describing the language you want to parse. It is the last argument given to Waxeye and is required by all of Waxeye’s operating modes.
10.1.1. Generate
-g <language> <dir>
Creates a parser written in the specified programming language. Writes the parser’s files to the specified directory.
Currently supported programming languages:
-
c
-
java
-
javascript
-
python
-
ruby
-
racket
waxeye -g racket . grammar.waxeye
10.1.2. Interpret
-i
Parses input as a string from the language defined by the grammar. Displays the resulting AST or parse error.
waxeye -i grammar.waxeye < input.txt
10.1.3. Test
-t <test>
Runs the tests in the specified test file for the language defined by the grammar. Displays any test errors.
waxeye -t tests.rkt grammar.waxeye
10.2. Grammar Options
-m
Indicates that the grammar is a modular grammar.
-s <start>
Specifies the non-terminal that starts the language. Default - The first non-terminal in the grammar.
10.3. Parser Options
-c <comment>
The file to be used as the header comment of generated files. Default - none.
-e <eof>
Whether to check that the parser consumes all input. Default - true.
-n <namespace>
The module or package namespace. Default - none.
-p <prefix>
The name prefix for any generated files. Default - none.
10.4. Misc Options
--debug
Activates debug information.
--version
Prints the version number and copyright notice.
--help, -h
Prints a message describing the available command-line options.
11. GNU Free Documentation License
GNU Free Documentation License
Version 1.2, November 2002
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
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copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies
to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other
conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use
technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further
copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept
compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough
number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and
you may publicly display copies.
3. COPYING IN QUANTITY
If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have
printed covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and the
Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the
copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover
Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on
the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify
you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present
the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and
visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition.
Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve
the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated
as verbatim copying in other respects.
If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit
legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit
reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent
pages.
If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering
more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent
copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy
a computer-network location from which the general network-using
public has access to download using public-standard network protocols
a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material.
If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps,
when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure
that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated
location until at least one year after the last time you distribute an
Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that
edition to the public.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the
Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give
them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.
4. MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under
the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release
the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified
Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution
and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy
of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:
A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct
from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions
(which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section
of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version
if the original publisher of that version gives permission.
B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities
responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified
Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of the
Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer than five),
unless they release you from this requirement.
C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the
Modified Version, as the publisher.
D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications
adjacent to the other copyright notices.
F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice
giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the
terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.
G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections
and required Cover Texts given in the Document's license notice.
H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
I. Preserve the section Entitled "History", Preserve its Title, and add
to it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and
publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If
there is no section Entitled "History" in the Document, create one
stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as
given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified
Version as stated in the previous sentence.
J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for
public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise
the network locations given in the Document for previous versions
it was based on. These may be placed in the "History" section.
You may omit a network location for a work that was published at
least four years before the Document itself, or if the original
publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.
K. For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications",
Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the section all
the substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements
and/or dedications given therein.
L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document,
unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers
or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.
M. Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements". Such a section
may not be included in the Modified Version.
N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled "Endorsements"
or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.
O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.
If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or
appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material
copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all
of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the
list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice.
These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.
You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains
nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various
parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text has
been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a
standard.
You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a
passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list
of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of
Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or
through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already
includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or
by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of,
you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit
permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.
The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License
give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or
imply endorsement of any Modified Version.
5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
You may combine the Document with other documents released under this
License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified
versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the
Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and
list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its
license notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers.
The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and
multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single
copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but
different contents, make the title of each such section unique by
adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original
author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number.
Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of
Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.
In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled "History"
in the various original documents, forming one section Entitled
"History"; likewise combine any sections Entitled "Acknowledgements",
and any sections Entitled "Dedications". You must delete all sections
Entitled "Endorsements".
6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents
released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this
License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in
the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for
verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute
it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this
License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all
other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.
7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate
and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or
distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the copyright
resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights
of the compilation's users beyond what the individual works permit.
When the Document is included in an aggregate, this License does not
apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves
derivative works of the Document.
If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these
copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half of
the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on
covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the
electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic form.
Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole
aggregate.
8. TRANSLATION
Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may
distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4.
Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special
permission from their copyright holders, but you may include
translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the
original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a
translation of this License, and all the license notices in the
Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also include
the original English version of this License and the original versions
of those notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between
the translation and the original version of this License or a notice
or disclaimer, the original version will prevail.
If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements",
"Dedications", or "History", the requirement (section 4) to Preserve
its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the actual
title.
9. TERMINATION
You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except
as expressly provided for under this License. Any other attempt to
copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will
automatically terminate your rights under this License. However,
parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this
License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
parties remain in full compliance.
10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions
of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new
versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.
Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number.
If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this
License "or any later version" applies to it, you have the option of
following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or
of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the
Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version
number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not
as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.
ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of
the License in the document and put the following copyright and
license notices just after the title page:
Copyright (c) YEAR YOUR NAME.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
Free Documentation License".
If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts,
replace the "with...Texts." line with this:
with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with the
Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts being LIST.
If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other
combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the
situation.
If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we
recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of
free software license, such as the GNU General Public License,
to permit their use in free software.