The plan is to use this in a html5 form pattern attribute masker http://zaach.github.com/jison/try/ http://jsfiddle.net/kaleb/aWpec/

fixed-length-regex.jison

%{
/*
* code
*/
function xerox(que, quanto) {
    var ary = [];
    while(quanto--) ary.push(que);
    return ary;
}
%}

%lex
%{
/************\
* code block *
\************/
%}
/**
 * lex definitions
 */

CHAR_CLASS       "\\c"[A-Z]|"\\"[dDfnrsStvwW]|"["[^\]]*"]"

%%
/***********\
* lex rules *
\***********/

"{"              return '{'
"}"              return '}'
"("              return '('
")"              return ')'
"?"              return '?'
[0-9]+           return 'NUM'
{CHAR_CLASS}|"." yytext = RegExp(yytext); return 'CLASS'
.                return 'CHAR'
<<EOF>>          return 'EOF'

%%

/**
 * lex user code; is this supported in jison?
 */

/lex

%start regex

%%

regex   : rx EOF                { console.log($$); return $$; };

rx      :                       { $$ = []; }
        | rx CHAR               { $$.push($CHAR); }
        | rx class              { $$ = $$.concat($class); }
        | rx sub                { $$ = $$.concat($2); }
        ;

class   : CLASS                 { $$ = [$CLASS]; }
        | CLASS "{" NUM "}"     { $$ = xerox($CLASS, $NUM); }
        ;

sub     : "(" rx ")" "?"           { $$ = [$rx]; }
        ;

jquery-pattern.html

<input type="tel" pattern="\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}" required="" />
<input type="submit" />

jquery-pattern.js

(function($, win, undef){
var n = 'pattern',      // name of plugin; subject to change
    def = 'initialize', // default method name
    defaults = {        // Default plugin options
        //TODO
    },
    methods = {         // Default plugin methods
        /**
         * HTML5 pattern attribute polyfill with basic masking capabilities
         *
         * @return jQuery object
         */
        initialize: function(options){
            return this.each(function(i, el){
                var $this = $(el),
                    data = $this.data(n),
                    // Extend the default options
                    settings = $.extend({}, defaults, options || {}),
                    pattern = this.pattern;
                if(!data){
                    // Initialize data object
                    //TODO
                    
                    // Set data object
                    $this.data(n, {
                        //TODO
                    });
                }
                console.log(el);
            });
        },
        /**
         * Dispose of the pattern features on specified objects
         * @return jQuery object
         */
        dispose: function(){
            return this.each(function(i, el){
                var $this = $(el);
                $this.removeData(n);
                $.error('Method `dispose` has yet to be implemented.');
            });
        }
    };
    
// expose functionality
$[n] = {
    options: defaults,
    fn: methods
};
$.fn[n] = function(method) {
    if(methods[method]){
        return methods[method].apply(this, Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 1));
    } else if(typeof method === 'object' || !method) {
        return methods[def].apply(this, arguments);
    } else {
        $.error('Method `' + method + '` does not exist on jQuery.mask');
    }
};
})(jQuery, this, undefined);
$('[pattern]').pattern();