Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ukma!husc6!spdcc!ima!compilers-sender From: vern@pistachio.ee.lbl.gov (Vern Paxson) Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: Lex surrogates Message-ID: <3295@ima.ima.isc.com> Date: 7 Feb 89 00:14:45 GMT Sender: compilers-sender@ima.ima.isc.com Reply-To: Vern Paxson Lines: 30 Approved: compilers@ima.UUCP 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 -- Send compilers articles to ima!compilers or, in a pinch, to Levine@YALE.EDU Plausible paths are { decvax | harvard | yale | bbn}!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