ANTLR4: How to control class hierarchy?

Question

How to configure ANTLR4 to not generate a parent class?

Given grammar MyGrammar

statement: 'do' | 'check';

ANTLR4 generates

class MyGrammar {
    class StatementContext {}
}

Since ANTLR4 generates a parent class for all XXXContext classes, this class name must be used in any usages as well. So I must write

MyGrammar.StatementContext node = ...;

and cannot simply write

NodeContext node = ...;

This is big enough of a deal, as it will pollute my code with extra characters that don't add any readability. As such, it downgrades readability, thus comprehensibility and debuggability, et cetera.

So, how can I make the grammar MyGrammar

statement: 'do' | 'check';

have ANTLR4 generate

class StatementContext {} // look ma: no parent MyGrammar class!

Answer 1

As simple as that: you cannot change the way classes are generated. It's a carefully arranged ensemble and changing that would break many things.