Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!tank!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Language Design, or: is C's Grammar Context Free
Keywords: BNF, Grammars, Silliness
Message-ID: <16807@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 9 Apr 89 05:07:12 GMT
References: <5200040@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <12443@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <920@m10ux.ATT.COM>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 11

In article <920@m10ux.ATT.COM> mnc@m10ux.ATT.COM (Michael Condict) writes:
>What you are ignoring is that very few parsers stand alone by themselves.

We are not ignoring this.  The topic was `context free grammars', not
`compilers and parsers'.  If you want to argue that one cannot build
a useful compiler using a CFG approximation for C, that is fine (since
we have seen that this is true).  Just do not do it by saying that
there is no context free grammar that recognises all valid C programs.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris