From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id RAA19043; Fri, 13 Aug 2004 17:40:07 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id RAA17430 for ; Fri, 13 Aug 2004 17:40:06 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from asmtp-a063f35.pas.sa.earthlink.net (asmtp-a063f35.pas.sa.earthlink.net [207.217.120.220]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id i7DFe5mL030317 for ; Fri, 13 Aug 2004 17:40:06 +0200 Received: from 65-103-213-184.tcsn.qwest.net ([65.103.213.184] helo=dylan) by asmtp-a063f35.pas.sa.earthlink.net with asmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1BveA0-0006ya-TN for caml-list@inria.fr; Fri, 13 Aug 2004 08:40:05 -0700 Message-ID: <005101c4814c$0445d700$0401000a@dylan> From: "David McClain" To: "caml" Subject: [Caml-list] CFG Parsers Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 08:41:31 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1437 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1441 X-ELNK-Trace: 7a0ab3eafc8cf994b22988ad1c62733440683398e744b8a488658d3f20c936f0c2cdce9e96c45e12387f7b89c61deb1d350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c X-Originating-IP: 65.103.213.184 X-Miltered: at nez-perce with ID 411CE0D5.000 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)! X-Loop: caml-list@inria.fr X-Spam: no; 0.00; mcclain:01 dmcclain:01 criticism:01 plea:01 mismatch:01 blind:99 spears:99 mcclain:01 compiler:01 ought:01 parser:02 backward:02 parsers:03 grammar:05 seems:05 Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk With all due respect, it appears that I need to reframe my thinking about these YACC parser builders and go backward in time by about 30-40 years. Now that I'm getting the hang of what it is doing, it looks strongly reminiscent of the style of programming we did back on old IBM 360's. I do notice that YACC becomes very sensitive to slight perturbations in the grammar. This is not meant as a criticism of YACC, but rather a plea for some more modern thinking in compiler generators. Perhaps the GLC tool will do better here. The problem seems to be the impedance mismatch between the way humans are led to think when viewing the "structured" YACC input clauses, and the more or less blind way the computer is actually using that information. I see that being a master of removing reduce/reduce conflicts seems to be a rite of passage. But surely there has to be a better way to approach these kinds of problems. Just because my ancestors used to hunt with spears doesn't mean I still ought to do so. David McClain Senior Corporate Scientist Avisere, Inc. +1.520.390.7738 (USA) david.mcclain@avisere.com ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners