I'm trying to resurrect an old f# parser project I had working in vs 2008 to work with vs 2013. It uses FsLexYacc.
I got it building ok by using a prebuild step as thus:
fslex --unicode "$(ProjectDir)XpathLexer.fsl"
fsyacc --module XpathParser "$(ProjectDir)XpathParser.fsy"
But this is less than ideal, as it always executes whether or not the inputs have changed.
I then tried just using the old MsBuild actions:
<FsYacc Include="XpathParser.fsy">
<FsLex Include="XpathLexer.fsl">
but these appeared to be completely ignored during the build process. Is that right? Have these build tasks been removed somehow?
I then found some stuff documented under vs C++ that I thought might work:
<CustomBuild Include="XpathParser.fsy">
<Message>Calling FsYacc</Message>
<Command>fsyacc --module XpathParser "$(ProjectDir)XpathParser.fsy"</Command>
<Outputs>$(ProjectDir)XpathParser.fs</Outputs>
</CustomBuild>
and
<PropertyGroup>
<CustomBuildBeforeTargets>CoreCompile</CustomBuildBeforeTargets>
</PropertyGroup>
(I inspected the Microsoft.Fsharp.Targets file to come up with the "CoreCompile" target.)
Alas, still no cigar.
Is anyone able to shine a light on whether it is indeed possible to properly integrate fslex/yacc into a vs 2013 solution, and if so, how?
I don't think the those tools are included by default with the F# compiler that is installed with Visual Studio and so the tasks don't exist. I did the following with a Visual Studio 2012 project, but I expect it would be similar in VS 2013. Here were the steps I had to follow:
Add an import statement for the FSharp.Powerpack.target file. This will add the
CallFsLex
andCallFsYacc
build targets. I added this after the import forMicrosoft.FSharp.targets
:<Import Project="$(ProjectDir)\..\packages\FSPowerPack.Community.3.0.0.0\Tools\FSharp.PowerPack.targets" />
Add these three properties to main PropertyGroup at the top of the file:
<FsYaccToolPath>..\packages\FSPowerPack.Community.3.0.0.0\Tools</FsYaccToolPath> <FsLexToolPath>..\packages\FSPowerPack.Community.3.0.0.0\Tools</FsLexToolPath> <FsLexUnicode>true</FsLexUnicode>
This tells the build tasks where to find the necessary tools and sets the unicode option for fslex.<Compile Include="Sql.fs" />
<FsYacc Include="SqlParser.fsp">
<Module>SqlParser</Module>
</FsYacc>
<Compile Include="SqlParser.fsi" />
<Compile Include="SqlParser.fs" />
<FsLex Include="SqlLexer.fsl" />
<Compile Include="SqlLexer.fs" />
You might be able to use the FsLex and FsYacc build tasks directly by referencing the FSharp.Powerpack.Build.Tasks.dll, but for me this was easier to get going.