Ragel State Machine Compiler

Ragel State Machine Compiler is a cool tool that turns finite state machines made from regular languages into executable code in C, C++, or Objective-C. What’s great about Ragel is that it doesn’t just recognize byte sequences like some other tools. It can actually run code at different points while recognizing a regular language.

How Does Ragel Work?

You can think of Ragel as a finite state transducer compiler. This means that instead of just spitting out symbols, it executes blocks of code during the process. When you want to write a regular language, you start off with something simple and build it up using operators like union, concatenation, Kleene star, intersection, and subtraction.

Building Finite State Machines with Ragel

This is exactly how you tell Ragel to compile your finite state machines! Ragel gets what you mean when you use operators to embed actions into machines or manage any non-determinism in them. Plus, the Ragel FSMs work well under all its operators for regular language and action specification.

The Power of Complexity

The best part? The complexity depends on how much processing power you have! For instance, imagine creating one machine to find specially formatted comments in C code. You could have another machine that lists all function declarations and a third one to spot string constants. Then you can combine all these tasks into one single machine that works on everything at once! How neat is that?

Why Choose Ragel?

If you're looking for an efficient way to compile your state machines and do more with less hassle, give Ragel a try!