ART is the Royal Holloway software language engineering tool written by Adrian Johnstone with support from Elizabeth Scott; we are the authors of the GLL, MGLL, RNGLR and BRNGLR algorithms.
The default ART pipeline processes language inputs using an MGLL multiparser coupled to a general lexer, with semantics specified using either SOS-style reduction rules or attribute-action rules. The core idea in ART is to delay ambiguity resolution until a natural point in the pipeline by allowing alternative interpretations to coexist.
A variety of other algorithms are available within ART; in particular reference GLL implementations that illustrate the central ideas along with a variety of optimisations. An early publication on these versions, and the associated presentation slides are here, and a recording of the presentation is here. The corresponding code is here.
To run from the command line, all you need is a Java installation and a copy of art.jar which is the current stable version. artALPHA.jar is the current development version which should be treated with caution.
If you wish to use ART's Integrated Development Environment then you will also need an operating system-specific JavaFX installation which you can download from https://gluonhq.com/products/javafx/. You will also need a copy of richtextfx.jar from https://github.com/FXMisc/RichTextFX.
Reference, tutorial and internals information is here. The four main documents are
-
ARTRef Reference material on the ART Script Language, along with a Getting Started guide in Chapter 1.
-
ARTSLE An introduction to Software Language Engineering using ART, as used in the Royal Holloway undergraduate SLE course.
-
ARTLab A sequence of lab exercises and a project specification for the Royal Holloway undergraduate SLE course.
-
ARTInt A sequence of technical notes on various aspects of ART's implementation.
To characterise the space and time performance of our algorithms, we use a variety of language grammars and language examples which you can find at https://github.com/AJohnstone2007/referenceLanguageCorpora.
You can access our research papers at https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/en/persons/adrian-johnstone/publications.
Many of those papers include data generated using our earlier tools, or earlier versions of ART which may be found in the old directory.
The code and other material in this repository is © 1993-2025 Adrian Johnstone but licensed under CC BY 4.0
Adrian Johnstone, [email protected]