GNOLL: Efficient Software for Real-World Dice Notation and Extensions

Abstract

GNOLL ("GNOLL's Not *OLL") is a software library for dice notation. Unlike previous papers, GNOLL's dice notation syntax is focused on parsing a language that tabletop role-players and board gamers are already used to for specifying dice rolls in many popular software applications. Existing implementations of such a syntax are either incomplete, fragile, or proprietary, meaning that anyone hoping to use such syntax in their application likely needs to write their own solution. GNOLL is an open-source project using the compilation tool 'YACC' and lexical tool 'LEX' which can be integrated into many applications with relative ease. This paper explores GNOLL's extended dice notation syntax and its competitive performance.