...
The C code generation templates and C runtime for ANTLR 3 are in-sync with ANTLR release 3.1. ANTLR release v3.1 C beta runtime is available as source in the latest interim builds .
Finding Example Grammars
If you are looking for the example projects, visit the downloads section of the main ANTLR page. Half way down the page is the examples tar/zip. Download this and expand it. In there is a subdirectory 'C' with VS2005 projects (also easy to build manually on UNIX).
...
The generated code is free threading (subject to the systems calls used on any particular platform being likewise free threading) and while I am not exactly certain that this is at all useful, it seems silly to write C code that is not free threading these threading these days unless there is some over arching reason to avoid it.
...
A goal of the generated code was to minimize the tracking, allocation and freeing of memory for reasons of both performance and reliability. In essence any memory used by a lexer, parser or tree parser is automatically tracked and freed when the instance of it is released. There are therefore factory functions for tokens and so on such that they can be allocated in blocks and parceled out as they are required. They are all then freed in one go, minimizing the risk of memory leaks. This has only one side effect, being that if you wish to preserve some structure generated by the lexer, parser or tree parser, then you must make a copy of it before freeign those structures, and track it yourself after that. In practice, it is easy enough not to release the antlr generated components unti lyou until you are finished with their results.
...
I have constructed the C code such that it will compile on any reasonable ANSI C compiler in either 64 or 32 bit mode, with all warnings turned on. This is true of both the runtime code and the generated code and has been summarily tested with Visual Studio .Net (2003, 2005 and 20052008) and later versions of gcc on Redhat and Ubuntu Linux, as well as on AIX 5.2/5.3, Solaris 9/10, HPUX 11.xx, OSX (PowerPC and Intel), Cygwin and CygwinMingW.
The C runtime is constructed such that the library can be integrated as an archive library, a shared library or DLL, or by integrating the source code into your own project or source code set (though this is not recommended, stick to linking with the libraries).
The C langauge target code generation templates are distributedC runtime is link compatible with C++ and Objective C. The generated code can also be compiled as C++ and you can embed C++ code in your grammars - use the relevant compiler link or option to force the C to compile as C++. The generated code can also be compiled by the objective C compiler.
Performance
It is C (well written and documented I hope to claim) and basic testing of performance against the Java runtime, using the JDK1.6 source code, and the Java parser provided in the examples (which is a tough test as it includes backtracking and memoization) show that the C runtime uses about half the memory and is between 2 and 3 times the speed. Tests of non-backtracking, non-memoizing parsersmemoizing parsers, indicate results significantly better than that.
...