DFDL Tutorial

In the DFDL folder are 4 Powerpoint slide decks:

1. DFDL-quick-intro.pptx

2. DFDL-versus-ANTLR.pptx

3. DFDL-part1.pptx (parsing and unparsing text files)

4. DFDL-part2.pptx (parsing and unparsing binary files)

5. DFDL-part3.pptx (details on several DFDL properties)

6. DFDL-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about.pptx (good misc stuff)

I recommend going through the slide decks in that order.

Also in the DFDL folder are these subfolders:

1. examples

2. labs

The examples described in the slide decks are in the examples folder.

The slide decks provide many lab exercises. I strongly recommend
doing the lab exercises. The solutions to the lab exercises may
be found in the labs folder. 

Also in the DFDL folder are these subfolders:

1. bin

2. lib

Those folders contain the DFDL processor called Daffodil. You
don't need to do anything with those folders.

Lastly, also in the DFDL folder is this subfolder:

1. saxon

Please download Saxon Home Edition (SaxonHE) and put it in
that saxon folder. SaxonHE may be found here:

http://saxon.sourceforge.net/#F9.9HE

Once you do that, you should be able to immediately start
parsing and unparsing using the Daffodil DFDL processor. You
can check that this is the case by going to the examples folder,
going into any of the folders in there and double clicking on
run.bat ... if everything is working, a command window will
open and you will see some messages about parsing and unparsing.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial.

Roger Costello
December 23, 2019