Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!killer!elg
From: elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: FLEX/LEX and YACC/BISON
Message-ID: <8188@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>
Date: 25 May 89 04:08:28 GMT
References: <18158@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 40

in article <18158@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu>, jgh2@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (John G. Hardie) says:
> I was wondering if anyone out there knows a good tutorial on the use
> of lex and yacc to generate a parser.  I understand some things about
> how parsers work, but am woefully ignorant about the functioning of
> these two programs.  I would like to play with them a bit, but don't
> know how to get started.  (the unix man pages were, uh, less than
> enlightening, and the programmer docs were almost as bad.  I suppose

Book #1: _Introduction to Copmiler Construction with UNIX_, Axel T.
Schreiner and H. George Friedman, Jr. Publisher: Prentice-Hall. ISBN
0-13-474396-2. 
  Synopsis: Tells how to write Lex and Yacc definitions, tells how to
do Yacc error recovery and other such "tricks of the Yacc trade",
gives copious examples. Will NOT teach you how to write a compiler --
you're assumed to already know that. Simply runs you through the Unix
tools to build a simple compiler.

Book #2: The "New Dragon Book": _Compilers: Principles, Techniques,
and Tools. Aho, Sethi, Ullman. Addison-Wesley ISBN 0-201-10088-6.
Nearly definitive reference of current "state of the art". Tells about
the algorithms underlying Lex and Yacc, amongst other things.  Gives
some example Yacc and Lex, e.g. a simple desk calculator on page 259,
but not much. The entire book is nearly impenetrable for someone who
hasn't taken a "Formal Languages" course, or who hasn't touched
discrete math/logic in eons. Would greatly benefit from being
re-written into English. Still, there's something to be said about
having the definitive reference on your shelf, in case you get tired
of dealing with black boxes and wonder what's REALLY happening. Just
scan a formal languages book first (Ullman collaborated on one '78
ways that was pretty good, but I forget the title offhand).

I got these through the Unix Bookstore, a few years back. There may be
more up-to-date books available now. I don't have their number handy,
maybe a couple of unix.wizards can help?

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