How to verify a parser?

"Joachim Durchholz" <joachim.dot.durchholz@halstenbach.com>
18 Jul 2000 11:55:57 -0400

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From: "Joachim Durchholz" <joachim.dot.durchholz@halstenbach.com>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: 18 Jul 2000 11:55:57 -0400
Organization: Compilers Central
Keywords: parse, testing, question

Dear all,


The problem is this: I've got an official grammar, and I've got
several compilers where I want to do a black-box check whether these
compilers really accept that grammar. I want to check both: whether
the compiler is accepting input that it shouldn't, and whether it's
refusing to accept input that it should.


I know that the problem is undecidable in practice, so I'll be happy
with a good approximation that captures typical problems that come
from transforming a grammar into one that's suitable for LR or LL
parsing. (The various compilers that I'm aware of use Earley parsing,
lex/yacc, and handwritten recursive descent.)


Regards,
Joachim


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