2008/7/14 Jim R. Wilson wilson.jim.r@gmail.com:
My recommendation is to address the actual reason why someone might want a context-free grammar in the first place. Considering how much time and creative energy has been spent on trying to create the one-true-parser, I wonder whether it would be easier to simply port the existing Parser to other languages directly (regular expressions and all). I bet it would be.
The question is how to implement such highly desirable features as a good WYSIWYG editor without knowing what each of those bits of syntax actually mean. A parseable grammar would make it just that bit closer. A grammar with a small amount of context might be workable (to minimise the recalculation needed at each keystroke). Etc.
The other use case is a 100% (once the really stupidly unnecessary emergent effects are ignored) provably correct reimplementation in another language, e.g. an optional C-based parser, a Java parser, etc., etc.
- d.