Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!ukma!husc6!spdcc!ima!compilers-sender From: pardo@june.cs.washington.edu (David Keppel) Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: Lex surrogates Message-ID: <3323@ima.ima.isc.com> Date: 11 Feb 89 02:52:35 GMT References: <3290@ima.ima.isc.com> <3311@ima.ima.isc.com> Sender: compilers-sender@ima.ima.isc.com Reply-To: pardo@june.cs.washington.edu (David Keppel) Organization: U of Washington, Computer Science, Seattle Lines: 25 Approved: compilers@ima.UUCP >"Douglas C. Schmidt" writes: >|[Gnu C compilers use a hand coded lexer.] tower@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Leonard H. Tower Jr.) writes: >[GNU is distributing FLEX] >Lexers do have use outside of compilers ... ;-} Since this is comp.compilers ... Compilers have uses outside of programming languages. Or put another way, compilers (and compiler pieces, and interpreters, ...) are useful for writing ``little languages''. A formal lexer and parser is often far more reliable than an ad-hoc parser. Remember, the keystrokes you type to your editor are both (a) a programing language and (b) get parsed and executed. Jeekers. -- pardo@cs.washington.edu {rutgers,cornell,ucsd,ubc-cs,tektronix}!uw-beaver!june!pardo -- 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