[comp.lang.misc] FYI: A Truly pd yacc.

oz@yunexus.UUCP (Ozan Yigit) (09/04/89)

[In case you have missed the article in comp.compilers]

FINALY IT'S OVER !!! THNX BOB !!!

For those who are interested, and who are tired of/annoyed by Bison's
copylefted skeleton, availability of a truly PD Yacc-compatible LALR
parser generator ZOO was announced by its author Bob Corbett, who's parser
generator (written as a part of his graduate work at Cal) was used in
Bison as well.

zoo is available via anonymous ftp: ucbarpa.berkeley.edu:  pub/zoo.tar.Z

Appearently, a new version of ZOO is also underway, for IEEE P1003.2
compatibility.

Happy parser-generations to all, PD to boot...	oz

-- 
The king: If there's no meaning	   	    Usenet:    oz@nexus.yorku.ca
in it, that saves a world of trouble        ......!uunet!utai!yunexus!oz
you know, as we needn't try to find any.    Bitnet: oz@[yulibra|yuyetti]
Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)         Phonet: +1 416 736-5257x3976

marksm@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Mark S Madsen) (09/05/89)

In article <3577@yunexus.UUCP> oz@yunexus.UUCP (Ozan Yigit) writes:
>copylefted skeleton, availability of a truly PD Yacc-compatible LALR
>parser generator ZOO was announced by its author Bob Corbett, who's parser
                  ^^^

Great effort and all that, but isn't there a rather heavily used,
popular, freely distributable archiver/unarchiver in wide circulation
that already uses this name???

A renaming is probably in order (IMHO) to avoid keeping confusion
springing eternal....

Mark
-- 
#######################################################################
##  Mark S. Madsen  ####  marksm@syma.sussex.ac.uk  ###################
####  Astronomy Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK.  ##
####################  Life's a bitch.  Then you die.  #################

kjones@talos.uucp (Kyle Jones) (09/06/89)

Ozan Yigit writes:
 > ... availability of a truly PD Yacc-compatible LALR parser generator
 > ZOO was announced by its author Bob Corbett, who's parser ^^^

Mark S Madsen writes:
 > Great effort and all that, but isn't there a rather heavily used,
 > popular, freely distributable archiver/unarchiver in wide circulation
 > that already uses this name???

Right.  In the fine bovine tradition of YACC and BISON, I suggest
changing one letter of the name, thereby making it "MOO".

oz@yunexus.UUCP (Ozan Yigit) (09/06/89)

In article <3577@yunexus.UUCP> I wrote:
>... availability of a truly PD Yacc-compatible LALR
>parser generator ZOO was announced by its author Bob Corbett...

I received a ton of mail about the name, ZOO, which is of course used by a
well-known archiever. I replied to most, and also passed a note to Bob,
but our views somehow were the same: take it, and call it *whatever* you
like: I call it NACC for Non-ATT-Compiler-Compiler. Try calling it YACC
for example. Bob tells me that ZOO's original name was ZEUS.

The point is folks, a ROSE is a ROSE by any other name. Take it, and 
enjoy it. If you find bugs, we certainly will know what to patch.

oz
-- 
The king: If there's no meaning	   	    Usenet:    oz@nexus.yorku.ca
in it, that saves a world of trouble        ......!uunet!utai!yunexus!oz
you know, as we needn't try to find any.    Bitnet: oz@[yulibra|yuyetti]
Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)         Phonet: +1 416 736-5257x3976

thomas@irisa.irisa.fr (Henry Thomas) (09/07/89)

From article <3615@yunexus.UUCP>, by oz@yunexus.UUCP (Ozan Yigit):
> In article <3577@yunexus.UUCP> I wrote:
>>... availability of a truly PD Yacc-compatible LALR
>>parser generator ZOO was announced by its author Bob Corbett...
< stuff deleted>
> The point is folks, a ROSE is a ROSE by any other name. Take it, and 
                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
An interesting problem, very old indeed. You should read Umberto Eco's novel:
"The name of the rose", which closes with these words:
"Stat rosa pristina nomine,
	nomina nuda tenemus" (Bernard Morlay, XII century)
The translation *might* be
- the principle of the rose is in its name
* or*
- the old rose exists only by its nane
* or * ... (someone translated it for me, it's a difficult translation too).
					Henry.

jwp@larry.sal.wisc.edu (Jeffrey W Percival) (09/07/89)

In article <3615@yunexus.UUCP> oz@yunexus.UUCP (Ozan Yigit) writes:
>take it, and call it *whatever* you like.
>If you find bugs, we certainly will know what to patch.

But this is no good.  Say I call it zork.  A user on my system
starts posting to computers all over the world about zork bugs.
Others complain about zoo bugs, and the (real) zoo people start
fretting.

No, this program is doomed without a consensus on its name.

Or, stop being a chicken-shit and call it "ls".  Just kidding.
-- 
Jeff Percival (jwp@larry.sal.wisc.edu)

rob@phao.eng.ohio-state.edu (Rob Carriere) (09/08/89)

In article <3615@yunexus.UUCP> oz@yunexus.UUCP (Ozan Yigit) writes:
>I received a ton of mail about the name, ZOO, which is of course used by a
>well-known archiever.
[...]
>The point is folks, a ROSE is a ROSE by any other name. Take it, and 
>enjoy it. If you find bugs, we certainly will know what to patch.

That's not the point.  I'm sure you know which program you wrote :-) I'm
fairly sure I can remember how to use `mv', but I'm not at all sure that I'll
be able to see which program is which on an archive server.  Those machines
usually rely on you knowing the program from the name, and that doesn't work
too well in this case.

SR

davy@riacs.edu (Dave Curry) (09/08/89)

In article <2989@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu> rob@phao.eng.ohio-state.edu (Rob Carriere) writes:
>In article <3615@yunexus.UUCP> oz@yunexus.UUCP (Ozan Yigit) writes:
>>I received a ton of mail about the name, ZOO, which is of course used by a
>>well-known archiever.
>[...]
>>The point is folks, a ROSE is a ROSE by any other name. Take it, and 
>>enjoy it. If you find bugs, we certainly will know what to patch.
>
>That's not the point.  I'm sure you know which program you wrote :-) I'm
>fairly sure I can remember how to use `mv', but I'm not at all sure that I'll
>be able to see which program is which on an archive server.  Those machines
>usually rely on you knowing the program from the name, and that doesn't work
>too well in this case.
>
>SR


Exactly right.  As the maintainer of one of those archives (UNIX-SW on
SIMTEL20), I haven't yet decided what to do about this program.  It
certainly won't be stored as ZOO, since that name is already in
widespread use as something else.  It's bad enough with several
hundred file names to run through, without having to figure out
*which* "ZOO" is intended.

I'll probably just call it PD-YACC or something and warn people not to
call it ZOO.  But it'd be a lot easier if the author would choose some
name that isn't already "taken".  (What does "ZOO" have to do with the
function of the program, anyway?)  (Of course, that question applies
equally well to the other ZOO program...)

Dave Curry
UNIX-SW Coordinator
UNIX-SW-REQUEST@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL

len@array.UUCP (Leonard Vanek) (09/08/89)

In article <1989Sep6.130011.1539@talos.uucp> kjones%talos.uucp@uunet.uu.net writes:
>Ozan Yigit writes:
> > ... availability of a truly PD Yacc-compatible LALR parser generator
> > ZOO was announced by its author Bob Corbett, who's parser ^^^
>
>Mark S Madsen writes:
> > Great effort and all that, but isn't there a rather heavily used,
> > popular, freely distributable archiver/unarchiver in wide circulation
> > that already uses this name???
>
>Right.  In the fine bovine tradition of YACC and BISON, I suggest
>changing one letter of the name, thereby making it "MOO".

I agree that we need a common name by which to refer to this program,
but only Bob Corbett can decide on this name. Perhaps we should make
such a request to him. He might be willing to accept suggestions from
the net, however, so here is my suggestion. In keeping with the
zoological tradition (which is probably where the name "zoo" came
from) I suggest "zebra". I realize that zebras are not related to
cattle but "buffalo" is too long and I do not think "ox", "bull", and
"cow" have the right ring to them.

Len

oz@yunexus.UUCP (Ozan Yigit) (09/08/89)

In article <1680@hydra.riacs.edu> davy@hydra.riacs.edu.UUCP (Dave Curry) 
writes:
>I'll probably just call it PD-YACC or something and warn people not to
>call it ZOO.  

PD-YACC may not be what you want, it is what the original ATT Yacc has
been called, and mistakenly distributed under. Perhaps REALLY-PD-YACC ??
:-) or to place credit where it is due, call it CORBETT-YACC.

>But it'd be a lot easier if the author would choose some
>name that isn't already "taken". 

Yes, I see this has become a problem of such scale, people have been
flaming Bob Corbett, as a way to thank him no doubt. In any case, Bob will
probably name it something else shortly. I have been getting my share of
mail (75 pieces so far, not quite as nasty) for my postings. I had hoped
that in this case, need, PD-ness and functionality will transcend the
name. I admit my naivete.

Now, I have decided to build a "Un*x list of Names" so we can all flame
each other about this name or that, and avoid deadly confusion. :-)

oz-but-not-what-the-name-suggests

-- 
The king: If there's no meaning	   	    Usenet:    oz@nexus.yorku.ca
in it, that saves a world of trouble        ......!uunet!utai!yunexus!oz
you know, as we needn't try to find any.    Bitnet: oz@[yulibra|yuyetti]
Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)         Phonet: +1 416 736-5257x3976

sewilco@datapg.MN.ORG (Scot E Wilcoxon) (09/09/89)

In article <3615@yunexus.UUCP> oz@yunexus.UUCP (Ozan Yigit) writes:
>The point is folks, a ROSE is a ROSE by any other name. Take it, and 
>enjoy it. If you find bugs, we certainly will know what to patch.

OK, now we know.  Folks, he wants to rename "ZOO" to "ROSE".  Look for
it by that name at your favorite archive sites.  (Oh, yeah, a cute
reason for the name?  Um..  You use a YACC to plow the field, which
makes "ROSE" to grow.  Poor grammar intentional, to stretch for the
pun :-)

"The name of the connector is the network."
"The name of the conference is the organization."
-- 
Scot E. Wilcoxon  sewilco@DataPg.MN.ORG    {amdahl|hpda}!bungia!datapg!sewilco
Data Progress 	 UNIX masts & rigging  +1 612-825-2607    uunet!datapg!sewilco
	I'm just reversing entropy while waiting for the Big Crunch.

jba@harald.ruc.dk (Jan B. Andersen) (09/10/89)

len@array.UUCP (Leonard Vanek) writes:
>... In keeping with the
>zoological tradition (which is probably where the name "zoo" came
>from) I suggest "zebra". I realize that zebras are not related to
>cattle but "buffalo" is too long and I do not think "ox", "bull", and
>"cow" have the right ring to them.

There is also an european bison, of which some are still alive in Poland
I belive, but I have forgotten the name.
An alternative might be the MUSK ox from Greenland?

kjones@talos.uucp (Kyle Jones) (09/10/89)

Dave Curry writes:
 > But it'd be a lot easier if the author would choose some
 > name that isn't already "taken". 

Ozan Yigit writes:
 > Yes, I see this has become a problem of such scale, people have been
 > flaming Bob Corbett, as a way to thank him no doubt. In any case, Bob
 > will probably name it something else shortly. [...]  I had hoped that
 > in this case, need, PD-ness and functionality will transcend the
 > name. I admit my naivete.

I hate to think Corbett has been getting actual flames over this issue.
However, his program should have a unique name to make it easier for people
to find it.  Some archive sites have hundreds of programs available and
have two or different releases of some programs.  It is irritating to
download a program only discover that it is something completely
different that happens to have the same name.

For example, I wanted to get the latest version of Walter Tichy's RCS
(Revision Control System).  I had heard that it was available on UUNET,
so I connected to UUNET, grabbed the ls-lR.Z file, looked up RCS, and
downloaded the files... only to discover that what I had was, in fact,
the "Rochester Connectionist Simulator".  I was not amused.

olender@cs.colostate.edu (Kurt Olender) (09/13/89)

Jan Anderson writes:
> There is also an european bison, which some are still alive in Poland
> I belive, but I have forgotten the name.

It's called a wisent, aka "Bison bonasus".
--
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