Article View: comp.lang.misc
Article #6358Re: Language Design
From: pa1162
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 1989 23:09
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 1989 23:09
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1724 bytes
Bob, I'm only a student, so don't think I have pretensions to telling you folks you're business, but the grammar in K&R probably isn't even the grammar for C... as I think you or someone else mentioned... it gets tweaked a bit if you want to try to write a compiler from it... so worry about whether it is context-free is immaterial. Why don't we all open our K&R (old edition) to page 214 and read the note at the heading of section 18 "Syntax Summary". It says that the syntax summary given isn't meant as an exact statement of the language. This isn't meant to be a flame... it's an attempt at a distinction because I think you and whoever are arguing at cross-purposes. The discussion is either about context-freeness and grammars or about non-precise syntax summaries and it's really not clear which one. As I said I am yet a student... but I can see the structure of an argument when it hits me in the face. I recommend somone clarify the and separate the matters at hand so that all this "stuff" can be separated. -Thomas Kammeyer (A student who likes to stick his nose into discussions)
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucsd!sdcc6!sdcc19!sdcc15!pa1162 From: pa1162@sdcc15.ucsd.edu (pa1162) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Language Design Summary: The K&R grammar may not even be the one in the book. Keywords: BNF, Grammars, Silliness Message-ID: <1355@sdcc15.ucsd.edu> Date: 26 Mar 89 23:09:18 GMT References: <5200040@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <12443@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <9122@claris.com> <12606@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <9162@claris.com> Reply-To: pa1162@sdcc15.UUCP () Organization: University of California, San Diego Lines: 17