Re: [boost] Re: [ANN] Spirit C++ parser framework.

From: joel de guzman (joel_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-05-24 22:00:43

From: "David Abrahams":

>
> From: "Vladimir Prus":
> > Theoretical study is not likely do give us much. Backtraing parser have
> > exponetial complexity in worst case, and  "high priests" would find
their
> use
> > impossible.
>
> FWIW, I know that at least one well-respected C++ compilers uses recursive
> descent with backtracking.
>

An email snippet:

"Bjarne Stroustrup is on record as saying that he regrets having used yacc
to
generate the parser in CFront (AT&T's C++ compiler), not because of any
difference in parsing speed, but because of the extreme difficulty of
providing meaningful syntax errors with yacc, compared to using RD."

"Walter Bright used RD in Zortech C++, and it's no slouch in compile speed."

-- Bruce Hoult
Bruce.Hoult_at_[hidden]

Did a quick search with
google, can't find... but I'm sure I read that somewhere. (D&E of C++?).

another quote:

"Examples of designs that meet most of the criteria for "goodness" (easy to
understand, flexible, efficient) are a recursive descent parser, which is
traditional procedural code. Another example is the STL, which is a generic
library of containers and algorithms depending crucially on both traditional
procedural code and on parametric polymorphism. "

--Bjarne Stroustrup

Cheers,
Joel de Guzman