Re: A Simple EBNF Grammar based parser

> No, my parser is not a recursive descent parser. Actually, it can be
> used to generate Syntax Trees by parsing a given string.


Actually, your tool is not a *parser* (or parser generator) at all.
That was the confusion. Your tool is an "AST class generator".
That's a different beast. Your tool compares to JTB or JJtree. It's
a useful thing, but it is not a parser. There is no difficulty in
generating AST classes from left recursive grammars.


> Now, is it that generation of a recursive descent parser is not
> possible for a Grammar involving Left Recursion?


Yes, that is the problem. If you generate a recursive descent parser
from a grammar with left recursion, the resulting parser will loop
when it comes to a place where it has to recognize input that matches
a left recursive rule. That is why I asked the question I did. If
your tool was a parser (rather than an AST class generator), then it
would have that problem with left recursion.


> Is it easy to generate AST's for grammars with Left Recursion.?


Yes, trivial, in fact. Generating AST classes is merely a case of
traversing the grammar. There is no problem with any kind of
recursion in that traversal.


Sorry, that I didn't understand what you had done earlier,
-Chris


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Chris Clark Internet : compres@world.std.com
Compiler Resources, Inc. Web Site : http://world.std.com/~compres
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