I m planning to build a static analyzer tool for a proprietary language. I m planning to use ANTLR to build the AST. I would like to know how does one go about checking for rules and guidelines , set by the project using the proprietary language using the AST.
for e.g. if I build the AST for a C source code with and say i want to check for null pointers . How would i do this check using the AST or CST.
Will i have to code in the test with ANTLR generated lexer/parser?.
Thanks
It depends on the specific analysis you want to perform. Taking your specific example: to determine statically whether a variable might be (or will be) a null pointer, you need to construct a data flow graph. I recommend to study the dragon book.
If you want to check for null pointer values, you will need full control and data flow analysis for your proprietary language. ANTLR won't get you there without beyond-superhuman effort on your part.
Check out the flow analysis capabilities of our DMS. We have used this to do deep flow analysis of very large scale C programs.
Even using this machinery, you are going to have to do a lot of work to explain your langauge to it. This is just a lot easier than any other approach you might take.
