Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!sickkids!mark
From: mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Re: Program Parsers for IBM-PCs
Message-ID: <389@sickkids.UUCP>
Date: 8 Feb 90 20:43:28 GMT
References: <9001131522.AA23880@net.bio.net> <9001151324.AA24670@net.bio.net>
Reply-To: mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt)
Organization: Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Lines: 56

In article <9001131522.AA23880@net.bio.net>
DBK@aberystwyth.ac.uk (Douglas Kell) writes:

> Are there any program parsers (PD or commercial) [ as in YACC for
> UNIX boxes] suitable for use with IBM-PCs (80386) running Fortran?

Before answering DBK's question, I feel obliged to correct a followup
that was posted.

In article <9001151324.AA24670@net.bio.net>
JRAMON@emduam51.bitnet (J. R. Valverde) writes:

>         Try downloading LEX. It is a tool much similar to YACC available in
> UNIX also. You can get it from SIMTEL-20 archives through TRICKLE.  [ ... ]

The two are "similar" only in the sense that they are two different
tools which are often (though not always) used together.  Lex is used
to produce lexical analyzers.  Yacc is used to produce parsers.  Yacc
parsers require a lexical analyzer, but there's no requirement that
lex be used to create it.  More important, lex knows nothing about
context-free grammars, and therefore is incapable of doing the things
that yacc does.  The two perform very different functions.  Please
don't confuse the two.

Now, back to DBK's original question.  First, I don't understand the
reference you made to Fortran.  Are you looking for a yacc-like tool
plus a grammar for Fortran (i.e. you want to use the pseudo-yacc to
create a Fortran compiler), or are you looking for a yacc-like tool
that generates Fortran code, in the same way that UNIX yacc generates
C code?  (Frankly, I *shudder* at the thought of a parser generator
that spews out a parser written in Fortran!)  Or is the reference to
Fortran irrelevant?

In any case, there is a very good yacc for MS-DOS, produced by the
following company:

        Mortice Kern Systems
        35 King Street North
        Waterloo, Ontario  N2J 2W9
        Canada

        Telephone:  519 884 2251
        FAX:        519 884 8861
        UUCP:       uunet!watmath!mks!inquiry

They have lots of other wonderful software for MS-DOS as well,
providing much of the functionality of UNIX (well, as much as
humanly possible) on top of that awful, brain-damaged Microsoft
operating system.

PS:  No, I'm not a paid shill, and have no affiliation with them,
other than as a (very) satisfied customer.

Mark Bartelt                          INTERNET: mark@sickkids.toronto.edu
Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto             mark@sickkids.utoronto.ca
416/598-6442                          UUCP: {utzoo,decvax}!sickkids!mark