[SOLVED] Using OCaml Menhir, is there a way to access something before it is processed?

Using OCaml Menhir, is there a way to access something before it is processed?

I am writing a parser to parse and compute function derivatives in a calculator.

I got a problem with implementing product and quotient rules : for a product the derivation formula is (u*v)' = u'v+uv', thus I need the value of u and u' in the final output. And with the parser I currently have, whenever comes the need to write u, it has already been replaced by u' and I quite don't know how to save its value, nor if it's even possible...

Here's the parser :

%token <string> VAR FUNCTION CONST
%token LEFT_B RIGHT_B PLUS MINUS TIMES DIV
%token DERIV
%token EOL

%start<string> main

%%

main:
t = toDeriv; EOL {t}
;

toDeriv:
DERIV; LEFT_B; e = expr; RIGHT_B {e}
;

expr:
u = expr; PLUS v = hat_funct {u^"+"^v}
  | u = expr; MINUS; v = hat_funct {u^"-"^v}
  | u = hat_funct {u}
;

hat_funct:
u = hat_funct TIMES v = funct {Printf.sprintf "%s * %s + %s * %s" u (A way to save v) v (A way to save u)}
  | u = hat_funct DIV v = funct {Printf.sprintf "(%s * %s - %s * %s)/%s^2" u (A way to save v) (A way to save u) v (A way to save v)}
  | u = funct {u}
;

funct:
f = func; LEFT_B; c = content; RIGHT_B {Derivatives.deriv_func f c}
;

content:
e = expr {e}
  | x = VAR {x}
  | k = CONST {k}

func:
f = FUNCTION {f}
  | k = CONST {k}
;

P.S : I know it might not be the greatest grammar definition at all, it's still a work in progress

Solution

Answering directly your question, yes you can maintain the state of what is being already processed. But that is not how things are done. The idiomatic solution is to write a parser that parses the input language into the abstract syntax tree and then write a solver that will take this tree as input and computes it. You shouldn't do anything in the parser, this is a simple automaton which shall not have any side-effects.

To keep it less abstract, what you want from the parser is the function string -> expr, where expr type is defined something like

type expr = 
  | Var of string
  | Const of string 
  | Binop of binop * expr * expr
and binop = Add | Mul | Sub | Div