
Railroad Diagram Generator: A tool for creating syntax diagrams - ingve
http://bottlecaps.de/rr/ui
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jakemoshenko
One of my favorite tools generates these for regexes, taking much of they
mystery out of the syntax:

[http://regexper.com/#(%3F%3ARailroad%7CRegex)%5Cs%2BDiagrams...](http://regexper.com/#\(%3F%3ARailroad%7CRegex\)%5Cs%2BDiagrams!%3F)

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dexen
Railroad Diagrams are used to great effect in SQLite documentation, for
description of mandatory/optional syntax elements, for example:

[https://www.sqlite.org/lang_update.html](https://www.sqlite.org/lang_update.html)

[https://www.sqlite.org/lang_createtable.html](https://www.sqlite.org/lang_createtable.html)

However the SQLite project seems to be using different tool, implemented in
Tcl: [http://wiki.tcl-lang.org/21708](http://wiki.tcl-lang.org/21708) .

~~~
drunkenfly
Oracle uses such diagrams for many years.

This is an example:
[https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b28286/state...](https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b28286/statements_10002.htm)

~~~
kwhitefoot
Pascal was described with such diagrams in Wirth's Pascal User Manual 1975 and
they were not new then.

They made learning Pascal much easier than trying to interpret BNF.

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detaro
Does not involve railroads :/

That said, it seems to work well and produce nice graphics, so functionality
is a win.

~~~
jasode
_> Does not involve railroads :/_

Couldn't tell if you were joking but "railroad" is a common term-of-art for
syntax diagrams. Example:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntax_diagram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntax_diagram)

~~~
detaro
Never heard them called that, and so I clicked the link with different
expectations ;)

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Someone
Apple Pascal poster using syntax diagrams: [http://www.pascal-
central.com/pascal-syntax.html](http://www.pascal-central.com/pascal-
syntax.html)

