Re: When was LALR first described?

Charles Wetherell <wetherell@acm.org>
25 Jan 2003 00:48:32 -0500

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Related articles
When was LALR first described? cdc@maxnet.co.nz (Carl Cerecke) (2003-01-17)
Re: When was LALR first described? mickunas@cs.uiuc.edu (Dennis Mickunas) (2003-01-21)
Re: When was LALR first described? wetherell@acm.org (Charles Wetherell) (2003-01-25)
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From: Charles Wetherell <wetherell@acm.org>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: 25 Jan 2003 00:48:32 -0500
Organization: Compilers Central
References: 03-01-079 03-01-107
Keywords: LALR, parse, history
Posted-Date: 25 Jan 2003 00:48:32 EST

"Dennis Mickunas"<mickunas@cs.uiuc.edu> wrote:


> "Carl Cerecke" <cdc@maxnet.co.nz> wrote in message
>
>> When, and in what publication, was LALR first described?
>
> DeRemer, F. L. "Practical Translators for LR(k) Languages," Ph.D.
> dissertation, Department of Electrical Engineering, MIT (1969).


However, the original definition was not quite technically
accurate. Later papers in the field (it took at least five years for
anybody to notice) corrected the error. Now any competent text in
parsing will give the correct definition.


How do I know? Because I once wrote a paper which proposed a different
algorithm for LALR computation which was reviewed by DeRemer. That's
when he noticed that my version of his definition wasn't quite
right. You can find the history (if you look real hard) in a footnote
in one of his papers which mentions NQLALR (Not Quite LALR). Sorry, I
don't have the reference with me at the moment.


Charles Wetherell

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