Re: old yacc bug. Fixed?

Dave Jones (djones@megatest.uucp) writes in part:


> I'm in the process of writing a compiler using yacc. A fellow worker
> loaned me "Introduction to Compiler Construction with Unix"
> by Axel T., Schreiner and H. George Friedman, Jr., Prentice Hall, 1985,
> so I've been trying to read it.


> The book alludes to a bug in yacc. The main thing I want to know is
> whether the Sun Unix 4.2 release 3.4 has the bug, and if so what do
> I do about it?


I'm one of the authors of this book, George Friedman.


I don't know whether this, or any other particular version of Unix, has a
bug-free yacc. The best suggestion I can give is to try out some of the
kinds of code that we mention in the book will cause problems, and see if
they do indeed cause those problems on your system.


The correction, and machine readable copies of the files in the book, are
available from me, as stated in the book. I'd be pleased to send a copy to
anyone who has purchased the book. (Please pardon me if I'm less helpful
to those who have not.)


The two easiest methods of distribution are by magnetic tape, or by using
"ftp" if it is available to you. You can send a tape to me at the address
below. Return postage for the tape would be appreciated, but is not required.


If you prefer something other than tar format at 1600 cpi, please let me know.


With "ftp", it is easy. Our machine is called a.cs.uiuc.edu (formerly known
as uiucdcs). In the ftp home directory, pub/friedman is a subdirectory, from
which one can copy out files "tar" and "tar.out". File tar is a tar output
file, and tar.out is the listing of what is in file tar.


               H. George Friedman, Jr.
               Department of Computer Science
               University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
               1304 West Springfield Avenue
               Urbana, Illinois 61801


               USENET, UUCP: uunet!uiucdcs!friedman
               CSNET, ARPA: friedman@cs.uiuc.edu
BITNET: friedman@cs.uiuc.edu
--

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