Re: Recursive Descent Parsers and YACC

In article <F7p?bk63@cs.psu.edu> melling@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) writes:
> Can someone give me an estimate on how much faster parsing can be made by
> writing a recursive-descent parser instead of using Yacc and Lex? Is there
> enough of a difference to consider using a RDP in a commercial C compiler?


Bjarne Stroustrup is on record as saying that he regrets having used yacc to
generate the parser in CFront (AT&T's C++ compiler), not because of any
difference in parsing speed, but because of the extreme difficulty of
providing meaningful syntax errors with yacc, compared to using RD.


Walter Bright used RD in Zortech C++, and it's no slouch in compile speed.


-- Bruce Hoult
      Bruce.Hoult@actrix.gen.nz
--

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