Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!necntc!ima!johnl From: johnl@ima.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: Algol 68 Message-ID: <701@ima.ISC.COM> Date: Wed, 26-Aug-87 08:21:27 EDT Article-I.D.: ima.701 Posted: Wed Aug 26 08:21:27 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 11-Sep-87 06:45:57 EDT References: <646@ima.ISC.COM> <648@ima.ISC.COM> <675@ima.ISC.COM> Sender: johnl@ima.ISC.COM Reply-To: Chris Moss Organization: Dept. of Computing, Imperial College, London, UK. Lines: 20 Approved: compilers@ima.UUCP In article <675@ima.ISC.COM> harvard!rutgers!petsd!cjh writes: >Can someone propose an alternative to attribute grammars, as a >way to specify context-sensitive syntax in a form suitable >for machine processing? I would be interested to know. The >answer doesn't have to solve the *whole* problem of compilation; >if you can bite off a substantial chunk, that's worth while. Definite Clause Grammars, or Metamorphosis Grammars to use an earlier title, do pretty well. They are just a wrapped up form of Prolog (i.e. they have full unification). Before you say that's even worse than AGs, I've been comparing YACC/Modula runtimes with compiled Prolog times for a small compiler recently and they aren't too different. (I'm not making any claims about space! :-). For details see my thesis (I.C. 1981) or paper in Lisp&FunPL Conf 1982. Chris Moss. -- Send compilers articles to ima!compilers or, in a pinch, to Levine@YALE.ARPA Plausible paths are { ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale | cca}!ima Please send responses to the originator of the message -- I cannot forward mail accidentally sent back to compilers. Meta-mail to ima!compilers-request