[comp.bugs.sys5] Bug in lex?

bill@twwells.com (T. William Wells) (09/16/89)

Every time I try to use lex's start states something breaks. This
time, it recognized something in a state that was not active. I
did not track this one down because of sheer disgust: I just
switched to flex. I've already discovered what is either an
incompatibility in flex or a bug, but at least I can fix that!

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johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) (09/18/89)

In article <1989Sep16.025910.6048@twwells.com> bill@twwells.com (T. William Wells) writes:
>Every time I try to use lex's start states something breaks. ...

In the Sys V3.2 manual on lex, they no longer document start states.
I guess they couldn't make them work either.  Keep in mind that lex
was written as an undergraduate summer intern's project at Bell Labs.

>I just switched to flex.

Good thinking.
-- 
John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869
johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl, Levine@YALE.edu
Massachusetts has 64 licensed drivers who are over 100 years old.  -The Globe

eric@snark.uu.net (Eric S. Raymond) (09/19/89)

In <1989Sep17.180836.2765@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us> John R. Levine wrote:
> In the Sys V3.2 manual on lex, they no longer document start states.
> I guess they couldn't make them work either.

There's a lot else wrong with that manual, including the claim that lex
terminates on an input function return of EOF when it actually requires a 0.

I have made higher-ups at AT&T aware that the manual is bogus, and been
promised that the Lesk paper and a lot of the other technical docs that had
fallen by the wayside will be restored to the documentation set.
-- 
      Eric S. Raymond = eric@snark.uu.net    (mad mastermind of TMN-Netnews)