andrew@convex.csd.uwm.edu (Andy Biewer) (03/19/91)
hello networld. i have been looking for a very long time for some decent documentation, be it commercial or public, for the lex/yacc programming environments. unfortunately, everywhere i've looked, even the BSD manuals don't have anything in-depth. does anyone know where i can find *anything* else about lex/yacc? thanks, andy biewer
jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) (03/20/91)
In article <10321@uwm.edu>, andrew@convex.csd.uwm.edu (Andy Biewer) writes: |> i have been looking for a very long time for some decent documentation, be |> it commercial or public, for the lex/yacc programming environments. |> unfortunately, everywhere i've looked, even the BSD manuals don't have |> anything in-depth. I believe that O'Reilly & Associates publishes a book about Lex and Yacc. You can ask them by sending mail to uunet!ora!nuts, or by calling 1-800-338-NUTS. -- Jonathan Kamens USnail: MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace jik@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134 Office: 617-253-8085 Home: 617-782-0710
rbj@uunet.UU.NET (Root Boy Jim) (03/28/91)
In article <1991Mar19.231319.1323@cbnewse.att.com> jcd@spock.att.com (Jack Dixon) writes:
?From article <10321@uwm.edu>, by andrew@convex.csd.uwm.edu (Andy Biewer):
?>
?> i have been looking for a very long time for some decent documentation, be
?> it commercial or public, for the lex/yacc programming environments.
?> unfortunately, everywhere i've looked, even the BSD manuals don't have
?> anything in-depth.
Did you just look at the man pages or did you look in "The Yellow Book"?
PS1:15 and PS1:16 describe YACC and LEX respectively, in depth.
I believe Sun's documentation is pretty much the same thing.
?> does anyone know where i can find *anything* else about lex/yacc?
?
?Try the O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. book titled "lex & yacc".
NO! DON'T BUY THIS. NOT EVEN FROM US. IT'S A PIECE OF SHIT.
So says Vern Paxson (author of flex) in his ;login: book review.
To be honest, I haven't looked at the book myself. But I
have never read such a bad review in my entire life, and I am
surprised that ORA would put out such trash.
--
[rbj@uunet 1] stty sane
unknown mode: sanetoma@swsrv1.uucp (Tom Armistead) (03/28/91)
In article <1991Mar19.231319.1323@cbnewse.att.com> jcd@spock.att.com (Jack Dixon) writes: >From article <10321@uwm.edu>, by andrew@convex.csd.uwm.edu (Andy Biewer): >> hello networld. >> >> i have been looking for a very long time for some decent documentation, be >> it commercial or public, for the lex/yacc programming environments. >> unfortunately, everywhere i've looked, even the BSD manuals don't have >> anything in-depth. >> >> does anyone know where i can find *anything* else about lex/yacc? >> >> thanks, >> andy biewer >> > >Try the O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. book titled "lex & yacc". >Their address is: > > 632 Petaluma Avenue > Sebastopol, CA 95472-9902 >-- >-- >Jack Dixon, AT&T >{ ...!att!vogon!jcd, jcd@vogon.att.com } I found a book that I REALLY like. It's in introduction to all the needed subjects and ends in the implementation of sub-set of C. It's about 190 pages which is short compared to most of the books I've seen - but it does cover all the bases. Title: 'Introduction to Compiler Construction with UNIX' By: Alex T. Schreiner and H.George Friedman, Jr. From: Prentice Hall (ISBN 0-13-474396-2) Cost: ~55.00 Tom -- Tom Armistead - Software Services - 2918 Dukeswood Dr. - Garland, Tx 75040 =========================================================================== {void,egsner}!swsrv1!toma mic!ozdaltx!swsrv1!toma {uunet,smu,ames}!sulaco!ozdaltx!swsrv1!toma
rhl@grendel.Princeton.EDU (Robert Lupton (the Good)) (03/28/91)
Well, I haven't read that particular O'Reilly book, but I have been pretty unimpressed by some of the others. The lint and make books didn't tell me anything that I didn't know (but then I have been using Unix lo these 10 years), didn't answer standard problems (`What do I do about unportable pointers with malloc()?'), and didn't discuss things like, "How do I deal with libraries PORTABLY accross all sorts of makes?". So I am not surprised that the Yacc&lex book isn't much good, but I am surprised that it's _that_ bad. Oh yes, the X books betray an author who doesn't know much about C%, and they are somewhat buggy. Robert ----------------- % While I am complaining, at least they know more C than the Authors of
tim@ora.com (Tim O'Reilly) (03/29/91)
In article <126609@uunet.UU.NET>, rbj@uunet.UU.NET (Root Boy Jim) writes: > > NO! DON'T BUY THIS. NOT EVEN FROM US. IT'S A PIECE OF SHIT. > > So says Vern Paxson (author of flex) in his ;login: book review. > > To be honest, I haven't looked at the book myself. But I > have never read such a bad review in my entire life, and I am > surprised that ORA would put out such trash. If you haven't read the book yourself, please don't repeat what other people say about it, or at least use their own words, rather than magnifying them as you did. The book does have its problems, which we unfortunately didn't uncover until too late, but we've also had enough positive feedback from people whom it has helped that we've decided to leave it out there while it is undergoing substantial revision. Most of the minor errors that Vern cited have already been fixed in the current printing; the major flaws in the approach take more time. I will point out that I have read such a bad review before! A review in ;login trashed Managing UUCP a couple of months before UUNET started handing it out to new customers. The book has gone on to help many thousands of people, and is the one source that people tend to point to for help with UUCP. As far as I'm concerned, you can always trust the technical competence, but not always the judgement of what is useful to other people, of the reviewers who write for ;login. -- Tim O'Reilly @ O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Publishers of Nutshell Handbooks 632 Petaluma Avenue, Sebastopol, CA 95472 707-829-8512, 800-338-6887 (in CA 800-533-6887), FAX 707-829-0104 Internet: tim@ora.com UUCP: uunet!ora!tim
rbj@uunet.UU.NET (Root Boy Jim) (03/29/91)
In article <1991Mar28.034014.23295@swsrv1.uucp> toma@swsrv1.uucp (Tom Armistead) writes:
?I found a book that I REALLY like. It's in introduction to all the needed
?subjects and ends in the implementation of sub-set of C. It's about 190 pages
?which is short compared to most of the books I've seen - but it does cover all
?the bases.
?
?Title: 'Introduction to Compiler Construction with UNIX'
?By: Alex T. Schreiner and H.George Friedman, Jr.
?From: Prentice Hall (ISBN 0-13-474396-2)
?Cost: ~55.00
I thought of mentioning this book, but I found it very difficult.
It jumps into the complex stuff right away.
Definitely not a tutorial on lex or yacc.
Be forewarned that this is an advanced book.
It's probably very good, as many people seem to like it.
--
[rbj@uunet 1] stty sane
unknown mode: sanerbj@uunet.UU.NET (Root Boy Jim) (03/29/91)
In article <7625@idunno.Princeton.EDU> rhl@grendel.Princeton.EDU (Robert Lupton (the Good)) writes: > >Oh yes, the X books betray an author who doesn't know much about C%, Having thumped (perhaps unfairly) ORA, I owe them some kudos. I have them all, except for the Motif versions. Volumes 0, 2, and 5, are pretty much collections of manual pages, with some added indices and catalogues. It's pretty hard to do them wrong, so I doubt that your quarrel is with them. Volume 3 is the user's guide, and doesn't get into C. Volume 7 is by Dan Heller, who is the comp.sources.x moderator. I haven't looked at his book, but he seems like he knows what he's doing in general. Volume 6 is who knows where? That leaves Volumes 1 and 4. I have read all of 1, and about half or 4, and learned a great deal from both. Both are by Adrian Nye, who also edited the references (0 & 2), and Tim O'Reilly himself, who edited 5 and contributed to 3. Tim seems determined to keep this series high quality. I have also looked at the Grey and Maroon book by RWS, Gettys, and someone else. I'm sure everything is in there, but it's very terse. And it's almost impossible to figure out how to use the Intrinsics from the MIT documentation. Now as to C style. I found several places where code could have been written more succinctly, but this may have taken away from explaining the point at hand. Writing programs for X is not conducive to studly programming tricks, but is rather plodding in style. There is so much to do, and the motto seems to be "keep it simple, it's already complex enuf". >and they are somewhat buggy. The real question is "were they actually compiled and run on a real machine before being published". I think they probably were, especially since the source is distributed in machine readable form (kudos for that, too). Remember that X is somewhat buggy, has changed, and runs on a variety of vendors hardware and software. Your mileage may very. Also, I would think that some of these programs may have deliberately left out subtle things in order to make their point. Now as to ORA in general. I see them evolving from a company that puts out books for beginners to one that is starting to put out more sophisticated stuff. The perl book is excellent and the one on system tuning look rather interesting. If you want to learn X, this series is probably the best. Of course, after you learn X, you might want to forget it, but then that's another story :-) > Robert >----------------- >% While I am complaining, at least they know more C than the Authors of of what? Lex & Yacc? -- [rbj@uunet 1] stty sane unknown mode: sane