🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <9122@claris.com>, hearn@claris.com (Bob Hearn) writes:
> Enough of this bullshit!  How many times do I have to say it???  The grammar
> in K&R is context-free.
 ...
> Now, before anyone else wants to tell me that K&R's grammar for C is not
> context-free, will you *please* go and look up the definition of context-free
> grammar???  Hint: anything that can be expressed in BNF is context-free!!

I detect that we are picking nits here.  I think that we all know what is
meant by the claim that the K&R grammar is not context-free.  It has been
noted that the K&R grammar is *ambiguous*; hence, its specification of
how programs should be parsed is *ill-defined*.  Additional
"context-sensitive" specifications are added to the K&R grammar in the form
of English prose (in the second edition, anyway; the first edition
seems to ignore the ambiguity problem).

Effectively, the grammar in K&R is "BNF + English prose".  Taking this
view, the K&R grammar is not context-free.

		Steve Vegdahl
		Computer Research Lab
		Tektronix Labs
		Beaverton, Oregon