Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think!yale!cmcl2!lanl!lambda!jlg
From: jlg@lambda.UUCP (Jim Giles)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Cheap implementations of languages (Re: Pointers and poor implementations (was: Re: JLG's flogging ...))
Message-ID: <14339@lambda.UUCP>
Date: 12 Apr 90 02:26:57 GMT
References: <MEISSNER.90Apr11112947@curley.osf.org>
Lines: 21

From article <MEISSNER.90Apr11112947@curley.osf.org>, by meissner@osf.org (Michael Meissner):
> [...]
> No Fortran 77 is much harder to lex, and somewhat easier to parse.  In
> Fortran, spaces outside of hollerith constants and strings are
> immaterial, which means that you must have a smart lexer, and can't
> use the normal lex-type tools.  The classic case is:
> 	DO 10 I=1.15		/* Assign 1.15 to var DO10I */
> 		vs.
> 	DO 10 I=1,15		/* Loop 15 times */


Hmm. Seems like I mentioned this very problem in my original 'cheap
implementation' article.  No, I take that back: I think my loop had
some other bound than 15.

If this is the extent to which Fortran is 'harder' than C, then I
claim that there's no important differences at all.  Lexers (even
ad-hoc ones) are _easy_.


J. Giles