[tutoriald-design] RE: tutoriald-design digest, Vol 1 #3 - 3 msgs

[Spencer O. <so...@pr...>]

An LALR(1) grammar can be found at the www.thethirdmanifesto.com website.

As far as parser and parser generators go I have no inclination
to using one over the other (mostly because I've never done it before ;)).

I have been trying out the parser engine from GOLD simply because I like
the claims it makes regarding language independence. *shrug*.  One of the
chief
concerns that I have with the Alphora implementation is its reliance on the 
language C#.  Not that I have anything against C# per se, but rather being
cornered into using a language in the first place. 

From TTM:

"We remark that it would probably be desirable in practice to suport an
"external"
format of <user scalar op def> as well.  Syntactically, such a production
rule
would include, not a <statement> (as in the grammar), but rather a reference
to some
external file in which the code that implements the operator can be found".

This is what Alphora has done with the "class .." portion of their language
D4. However
I much prefer the second possibility from TTM.

"It might also be desirable to support a format of <user scalar op def> that
includes neither
a <statement> not an external erference; such a format would define merely
what 
Chapters 13 and 14 call a "specification signature" for the operator in
question, and
the implementation code would then have to be defined elsewhere."

-spencer