ANTLR Development

Development Notes

In case you find yourself in the unlucky position of working on the cypher package

Development Tools

VS Code

• Prerequisite: make sure you have Java installed locally. The openjdk-21-jre package is a good option, though other versions/distros will likely work as well.
• Install "ANTLR4 grammar syntax support": https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mike-lischke.vscode-antlr4
• Open the grammar file in packages/go/cypher/grammar
• Check that everything is working by using the ANTLR: Show Grammar Call Graph command (ctrl+shift+P or equivalent to search the command)
• You should get a cool graph of the cypher grammar. Sorry, no troubleshooting advice available currently.
• Create a file or scratchpad. All that matters is that it's a text file that exists somewhere on your filesystem, doesn't need to be within the project
• Write a nice cypher statement you want to validate/graph
• After saving, open the Debug charm and look for the option Debug Cypher Grammar. Running this on your scratch file should end up running the ANTLR tool against the text and give you a nice graph of how it parses.
• You can additionally get railroad diagrams and more when browsing the Grammar file. Just right click or look at the other ANTLR commands to explore more. Railroad diagrams for a specific rule are often another useful tool to bring up. The cool graph we got at the start is also a great way to see how a specific rule is mapped to other rules visually.

JetBrains

1. Install the plugin: https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7358-antlr-v4
2. Open the grammar file in packages/go/cypher/grammar
3. Open the ANTLR Preview window either with the ANTLR icon on your IDEs side toolbars OR View -> Tool Windows -> ANTLR Preview
4. With "Input" radio button selected, type your nice cypher statement you want to validate / graph
5. View it parsed on the right either through the Parse Tree | Hierarchy | Profiler tab.
6. Cry that you don't get to view the cool graph or the railroad diagrams mentioned in the VS Code plugin details above.
7. Profit