Chapter 24. The Interpreter Pattern

Some programs benefit from having a language to describe operations they can perform. The Interpreter pattern generally describes defining a grammar for that language and using that grammar to interpret statements in that language.

Motivation

When a program presents a number of different but somewhat similar cases it can deal with, it can be advantageous to use a simple language to describe these cases and then have the program interpret that language. Such cases can be as simple as the sort of Macro language recording facilities a number of office suite programs provide or as complex as Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). VBA is not only included in Microsoft Office products, but it can be embedded in any number ...

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