Re: Lex surrogates

lfcs.edinburgh.ac.uk!db@NSS.CS.UCL.AC.UK (Dave Berry) asked about scanner
generators that claim to produce smaller and faster scanners than Lex,
listing three references of which "None of them seem to have caught on."


Allow me if I may to plug flex, which is my lex rewrite claiming to produce
smaller and faster scanners than Lex. It has caught on fairly well, to
judge from the email and bug reports I receive, and I've been told that
UCB's CSRG will be using it to replace lex in subsequent BSD releases. It's
available as flex.shar.Z for anonymous ftp from rtsg.ee.lbl.gov (128.3.254.68);
it's also available (sorry, I don't know the exact name) from prep.ai.mit.edu
(128.52.32.14), though as schmidt@ORION.CF.UCI.EDU (Douglas C. Schmidt) writes:


> Arrrrrggghh. I can't take the spread of misinformation any more! GNU
> C and GNU C++ *don't* use LEX or FLEX or GNULEX (no, it doesn't
> exist).


I.e., it's not part of the GNU project. It \is/ "free" software in
more-or-less the same spirit, however, which I think is why they are
distributing it.


Vern


Vern Paxson vern@lbl-csam.arpa
Real Time Systems ucbvax!lbl-csam.arpa!vern
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (415) 486-6580
--

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.