Re: Parsing Expression Grammar

Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich@compuserve.de>
14 Sep 2005 21:18:34 -0400

          From comp.compilers
Related articles
[8 earlier articles]
Re: Parsing Expression Grammar wclodius@lanl.gov (2005-09-10)
Re: Parsing Expression Grammar cfc@shell01.TheWorld.com (Chris F Clark) (2005-09-10)
Re: Parsing Expression Grammar gneuner2@comcast.net (George Neuner) (2005-09-10)
Re: Parsing Expression Grammar DrDiettrich@compuserve.de (Hans-Peter Diettrich) (2005-09-10)
Re: Parsing Expression Grammar paul@parsetec.com (Paul Mann) (2005-09-11)
Re: Parsing Expression Grammar paul@parsetec.com (Paul Mann) (2005-09-11)
Re: Parsing Expression Grammar DrDiettrich@compuserve.de (Hans-Peter Diettrich) (2005-09-14)
Re: Parsing Expression Grammar gneuner2@comcast.net (George Neuner) (2005-09-14)
Re: Parsing Expression Grammar Meyer-Eltz@t-online.de (Detlef Meyer-Eltz) (2005-09-14)
Re: Parsing Expression Grammar cleos@nb.sympatico.ca (Cleo Saulnier) (2005-09-17)
Re: Parsing Expression Grammar DrDiettrich@compuserve.de (Hans-Peter Diettrich) (2005-09-17)
Re: Parsing Expression Grammar Meyer-Eltz@t-online.de (Detlef Meyer-Eltz) (2005-09-18)
Re: Parsing Expression Grammar cleos@nb.sympatico.ca (Cleo Saulnier) (2005-09-22)
[13 later articles]
| List of all articles for this month |
From: Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich@compuserve.de>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: 14 Sep 2005 21:18:34 -0400
Organization: Compilers Central
References: 05-09-042 05-09-047
Keywords: parse, design
Posted-Date: 14 Sep 2005 21:18:34 EDT

Paul Mann wrote:


> > Do you really think that humans prefer harder to "parse" languages?
> > Lookahead and backtracking affect humans as well as programs.
>
> Yes humans do prefer harder-to-parser languages. Example: English.


For communication, perhaps, but not necessarily for commands and
statements in data processing. Natural languages are one thing, formal
languages another one. I for my part would kill the person that invented
English <gd&r>


> And the computer should serve the human not the other way around.


Stupid users can profit from the assistance of a clever program, but
in case of languages and parsers it's not always a good idea to allow
for a bad language design, only because it can be handled by
sophisticated techniques. Have a look at the many bad websites,
resulting from uneducated use of publishing tools.


DoDi

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