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[tbsp](https://git.peppe.rs/languages/tbsp) (tree-based
source-processing language) is an awk-like language that
operates on tree-sitter syntax trees. To motivate the need
for such a program, we could begin by writing a
markdown-to-html converter using `tbsp` and
[tree-sitter-md](https://github.com/tree-sitter-grammars/tree-sitter-markdown).
We need some markdown to begin with:


    # 1 heading

    content of first paragraph

    ## 1.1 heading

    content of nested paragraph


For future reference, this markdown is parsed like so by
tree-sitter-md (visualization generated by
[tree-viz](https://git.peppe.rs/cli/tree-viz)):


    document
    |  section
    |  |  atx_heading
    |  |  |  atx_h1_marker "#"
    |  |  |  heading_content inline "1 heading"
    |  |  paragraph
    |  |  |  inline "content of first paragraph"
    |  |  section
    |  |  |  atx_heading
    |  |  |  |  atx_h2_marker "##"
    |  |  |  |  heading_content inline "1.1 heading"
    |  |  |  paragraph
    |  |  |  |  inline "content of nested paragraph"


Onto the converter itself. Every `tbsp` program is written as
a collection of stanzas. Typically, we start with a stanza
like so:


    BEGIN {
        int depth = 0;

        print("<html>\n");
        print("<body>\n");
    }


The stanza begins with a "pattern", in this case, `BEGIN`,
and is followed a block of code. This block specifically, is
executed right at the beginning, before traversing the parse
tree. In this stanza, we set a "depth" variable to keep
track of nesting of markdown headers, and begin our html
document by printing the `<html>` and `<body>` tags.

We can follow this stanza with an `END` stanza, that is
executed after the traversal:


    END {
        print("</body>\n");
        print("</html>\n");
    }


In this stanza, we close off the tags we opened at the start
of the document. We can move onto the interesting bits of
the conversion now:


    enter section {
        depth += 1;
    }
    leave section {
        depth -= 1;
    }


The above stanzas begin with `enter` and `leave` clauses,
followed by the name of a tree-sitter node kind: `section`.
The `section` identifier is visible in the
tree-visualization above, it encompasses a markdown-section,
and is created for every markdown header. To understand how
`tbsp` executes above stanzas:


    document                                 ...  depth = 0 
    |  section <-------- enter section (1)   ...  depth = 1 
    |  |  atx_heading
    |  |  |  inline
    |  |  paragraph
    |  |  |  inline
    |  |  section <----- enter section (2)   ...  depth = 2 
    |  |  |  atx_heading
    |  |  |  | inline
    |  |  |  paragraph
    |  |  |  | inline
    |  |  | <----------- leave section (2)   ...  depth = 1 
    |  | <-------------- leave section (1)   ...  depth = 0 


The following stanzas should be self-explanatory now:


    enter atx_heading {
        print("<h");
        print(depth);
        print(">");
    }
    leave atx_heading {
        print("</h");
        print(depth);
        print(">\n");
    }

    enter inline {
        print(text(node));
    }


But an explanation is included nonetheless:


    document                                 ...  depth = 0 
    |  section <-------- enter section (1)   ...  depth = 1 
    |  |  atx_heading <- enter atx_heading   ...  print "<h1>"
    |  |  |  inline <--- enter inline        ...  print ..
    |  |  | <----------- leave atx_heading   ...  print "</h1>"
    |  |  paragraph
    |  |  |  inline <--- enter inline        ...  print ..
    |  |  section <----- enter section (2)   ...  depth = 2 
    |  |  |  atx_heading enter atx_heading   ...  print "<h2>"
    |  |  |  | inline <- enter inline        ...  print ..
    |  |  |  | <-------- leave atx_heading   ...  print "</h2>"
    |  |  |  paragraph
    |  |  |  | inline <- enter inline        ...  print ..
    |  |  | <----------- leave section (2)   ...  depth = 1 
    |  | <-------------- leave section (1)   ...  depth = 0 


The
[examples](https://git.peppe.rs/languages/tbsp/tree/examples)
directory contains a complete markdown-to-html converter,
along with a few other motivating examples.

### Usage

The `tbsp` evaluator is written in rust, use cargo to build
and run:

    cargo build --release
    ./target/release/tbsp --help


`tbsp` requires three inputs:

- a `tbsp` program, referred to as "program file"
- a language
- an input file or some input text at stdin


You can run the interpreter like so (this program prints an
overview of a rust file):

    $ ./target/release/tbsp \
          -f./examples/code-overview/overview.tbsp \
          -l rust \
          src/main.rs
    module
       └╴struct Cli
       └╴trait Cli
          └╴fn program
          └╴fn language
          └╴fn file
       └╴fn try_consume_stdin
       └╴fn main