Using semantic predicates with Python target - antlr

Question

I'm currently building a grammar for unit tests regarding a proprietary language my company uses.
This language resembles Regex in some way, for example F=bing* indicates the possible repetition of bing. A single * however represents one any block, and ** means any number of arbitrary blocks.
My only solution to this is using semantic predicates, checking if the preceding token was a space. If anyone has suggestions circumventing this problem in a different way, please share!
Otherwise, my grammar looks like this right now, but the predicates don't seem to work as expected.
grammar Pattern;
element:
ID
| macro;
macro:
MACRONAME macroarg? REPEAT?;
macroarg: '['( (element | MACROFREE ) ';')* (element | MACROFREE) ']';
and_con :
element '&' element
| and_con '&' element
|'(' and_con ')';
head_con :
'H[' block '=>' block ']';
block :
element
| and_con
| or_con
| head_con
| '(' block ')';
blocksequence :
(block ' '+)* block;
or_con :
((element | and_con) '|')+ (element | and_con)
| or_con '|' (element | and_con)
| '(' blocksequence (')|(' blocksequence)+ ')' REPEAT?;
patternlist :
(blocksequence ' '* ',' ' '*)* blocksequence;
sentenceord :
'S=(' patternlist ')';
sentenceunord :
'S={' patternlist '}';
pattern :
sentenceord
| sentenceunord
| blocksequence;
multisentence :
MS pattern;
clause :
'CLS' ' '+ pattern;
complexpattern :
pattern
| multisentence
| clause
| SECTIONS ' ' complexpattern;
dictentry:
NUM ';' complexpattern
| NUM ';' NAME ';' complexpattern
| COMMENT;
dictionary:
(dictentry ('\n'|'\r\n'))* (dictentry)? EOF;
ID : ( '^'? '!'? ('F'|'C'|'L'|'P'|'CA'|'N'|'PE'|'G'|'CD'|'T'|'M'|'D')'=' NAME REPEAT? '$'? )
| SINGLESTAR REPEAT?;
fragment SINGLESTAR: {_input.LA(-1)==' '}? '*';
fragment REPEATSTAR: {_input.LA(-1)!=' '}? '*';
fragment NAME: CHAR+ | ',' | '.' | '*';
fragment CHAR: [a-zA-Z0-9_äöüßÄÖÜ\-];
REPEAT: (REPEATSTAR|'+'|'?'|FROMTIL);
fragment FROMTIL: '{'NUM'-'NUM'}';
MS : 'MS' [0-9];
SECTIONS: 'SEC' '=' ([0-9]+','?)+;
NUM: [0-9]+;
MACRONAME: '#'[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z_0-9]*;
MACROFREE: [a-zA-Z!]+;
COMMENT: '//' ~('\r'|'\n')*;

Answer 1

When targeting Python, the syntax of lookahead predicates needs to be like this:
SINGLESTAR: {self._input.LA(-1)==ord(' ')}? '*';
Note that it is necessary to add the "self." reference to the call and wrap the character with the ord() function which returns a unicode value for comparison. Antlr documentation for Python target is seriously lacking!