Re: ALGOL - lexical analyzer

Henry Spencer <henry@spsystems.net> wrote:
>No, not so. Algol 68 had the same problem; an implementation was
>supposed to provide *some way* of distinguishing keywords from
>identifiers, but at least in the beginning, there was no consensus on
>what it should be. I was on the fringes of the Algol 68 community for
>a little while in the mid-1970s, and I remember considerable
>discussion about whether specific convention(s) should be
>standardized, and if so, which one(s). Quoting ("stropping") was
>discussed, and if memory serves, a British group reported favorable
>experience with using periods rather than quotes as keyword markers,
>e.g. .begin and .end -- still a nuisance but easier to type.


One of the 'updates' did standardise a range of stropping methods,
but I don't think that one was included. I can't remember where it
came from, but it derived from some earlier language (and was, of
course, fairly common in assemblers). But even that update allowed
half a dozen methods, with no recommendation for a canonical one.




Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

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