Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!eru!luth!sunic!tut!tukki!sakkinen
From: sakkinen@tukki.jyu.fi (Markku Sakkinen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: zortech problem with lex
Message-ID: <3742@tukki.jyu.fi>
Date: 14 Mar 90 07:03:07 GMT
References: <6300008@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <24800002@sunb6> <25ECE752.29589@paris.ics.uci.edu> <10541@alice.UUCP> <6553@cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM> <25F8C92A.9349@paris.ics.uci.edu>
Reply-To: sakkinen@jytko.jyu.fi (Markku Sakkinen)
Organization: University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
Lines: 36

In article <25F8C92A.9349@paris.ics.uci.edu> rfg@ics.uci.edu (Ronald Guilmette) writes:
>In article <6553@cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM> ned@MCC.COM (Ned Nowotny) writes:
>>
>>Given the imprecise nature of the C++ specification, I am more than a
>>little disappointed that the language does not have a grammar expressible
>>in BNF form that will accept all legal strings and reject all illegal
>>strings.
>
>As Joe English also points out, this is utter nonsense. [...]
>>... While it may be
>>true that some LALR(1) grammar will accept all legal C++ strings, the fact
>>that the grammar must also accept illegal strings makes the claim that
>>C++ is somehow a LALR(1) language something less than useful.
>
>I agree that in practice, nobody actually is stupid enough to use V* as their
>LALR(1) grammar for parsing C++ or other languages, but just because the
>statement "C++ is LALR(1)" may not be "useful" does not mean that it is
>not 100% accurate.  In fact, I believe that it is.

Sorry, Mr. Guilmette, I think it is _you_ who are repeating the same
utter nonsense too many times in this group. Please stand back for
a while and reflect on how vacuous any grammatical classification
of languages becomes is one takes your attitude. Alternatively,
go post your opinion to the comp.theory group (or comp.compilers)
and get your knuckles rapped on by real experts.

Otherwise, you seem to be one of the most prolific and useful
contributors in this group.

Markku Sakkinen
Department of Computer Science
University of Jyvaskyla (a's with umlauts)
Seminaarinkatu 15
SF-40100 Jyvaskyla (umlauts again)
Finland
          SAKKINEN@FINJYU.bitnet (alternative network address)