compact recursive-descent parsing of expressions

forsyth@minster.york.ac.uk
Mon, 25 May 1992 17:50:49 GMT

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compact recursive-descent parsing of expressions forsyth@minster.york.ac.uk (1992-05-25)
Re: compact recursive-descent parsing of expressions keithc@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (1992-05-26)
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Newsgroups: comp.compilers
From: forsyth@minster.york.ac.uk
Keywords: parse, LL(1)
Organization: Compilers Central
Date: Mon, 25 May 1992 17:50:49 GMT

It's used by lcc, but you needn't look there for a description:


%T Compact Recursive-descent Parsing of Expressions
%A D. R. Hanson
%J SOFTWARE - Practice and Experience
%V 15
%N 12
%P 1205-1212
%D December 1985
%K Recursive-descent parsing, Expression parsing, Precedence, Compilers


I have seen a similar technique used before (in a C compiler written by
David Conroy -- cf. micro-emacs), circa 1979/80, but David might well have
been using it for some time. (I haven't got the source code of that
compiler, and so I can't say how closely the two implementations
correspond in detail.) I liked it enough then to use it in a parser for
Pascal, and later in a parser for regular expressions.


Still, like most good ideas that someone probably patented last year, this
one has been about for some time!
--


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