compilers-request@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) (08/13/90)
This is the comp.compilers monthly message, last edited August 1990.
-- What is comp.compilers?
It is a moderated usenet news group addressing the topics of compilers in
specific and programming language design and implementation in general. It
started in 1986 as a moderated mailing list, but interest quickly grew to
the point where it was promoted to a news group. Recent topics have
included optimization techniques, language design issues, announcements of
new compiler tools, and book reviews.
Messages come from a wide variety of people ranging from undergraduate
students to well-known experts in industry and academia. Authors live all
over the world -- there are regular messages from the U.S, Canada, Europe,
Australia, and Japan, with occasional ones from as far away as Malaysia. I
have no idea how large the readership is, since the anarchic nature of
usenet makes it impossible to tell who reads it, but I wouldn't be surprised
if the total were in the tens of thousands.
Unless there is specific language to the contrary, each message represents
the personal opinion of the author. As moderator, I specifically renounce
any compilation copyright on comp.compilers. As far as I am concerned,
anyone can reproduce any message for any purpose. Individual authors may
retain rights to their messages, although I will not knowingly post anything
that does not permit at least unlimited non-commercial distribution.
-- How do I receive it?
By reading comp.compilers on a system that gets net news. People sometimes
ask me to send them messages as mail, but I don't have the resources to
maintain a mailing list as well as a news group. (If you saw my computer,
you'd know why.) If you absolutely cannot get net news, ask a nearby site
that does get it to forward messages to you as mail.
As far as I know, there are no formal forwarders to other networks or
services, though I would be happy to help set them up if demand warranted
it.
-- How do I submit a message?
Mail it to compilers@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, also known as
compilers@esegue.uucp or esegue!compilers. I review messages nearly every
day, usually including weekends, and most messages are posted to the net
within a day after I receive them. Occasionally when I go on vacation there
may be up to a week's delay, though I try to send out a message when that
will happen.
Most net news systems will automatically turn posted messages into mail to
compilers, but some, particularly systems running notes at Hewlett Packard,
don't do that correctly. As a result, I sometimes receive fifty copies of a
message, all mangled slightly differently. Please mail your contributions
unless you're sure your posting software works correctly.
When you send a message to compilers, I understand that to mean that you
want me to post it to usenet, which means it will be sent to tens of
thousands of potential readers at thousands of computers all around the
world. If you don't want me to post something, send it instead to
compilers-request. (See below.)
-- What happens to submitted messages?
Barring mail problems, they arrive in a special mailbox here at esegue. I
then edit the headers, trim down quoted text, fix typos and grammatical
errors, remove cute signatures, and then post them to usenet. If I think a
message needs more editing than that, I return it to the author for
rewriting. The main reasons I return a message are that it appears more
appropriate for another group, the message is too garbled to fix, it
contains too much quoted material relative to the amount of new material, or
I don't understand it. I also usually return messages that directly attack
individuals, since the net has plenty of other places for ad-hominem
battles.
If a message asks a simple question I sometimes answer it myself rather than
posting it. When two or three messages arrive with the same answer to a
question, I usually post only one of them, with a comment crediting the
others.
If you send in a message and don't either see it posted or receive something
back in a few days, it probably got lost in the mail and you should contact
me, preferably via a different mail route. I post or respond to all
messages except for ones that appear to have been sent by mistake, e.g. no
contents, or contents consisting only of another quoted message.
-- How do I respond to the author of a message?
I try to be sure that every message contains valid From: and Reply-To:
headers. The automatic "reply" commands in most news readers let you send
mail to the author.
Some obsolete news readers attempt to reply using the Path: header, but for
technical reasons the Path: header in a moderated message cannot point to
the actual author. In fact, the Path: header in a compilers message always
is an invalid mail address, so if you have such a news reader you'll have to
edit the addresses in responses yourself and, I hope, encourage your system
manager to update your news and mail software.
-- How do I contact the moderator?
Send me mail at compilers-request@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us. If for some
reason your system chokes on that address (it shouldn't, it's registered)
mail to Levine@yale.edu will get to me. I treat messages to
compilers-request as private messages to me unless they state that they are
for publication.
-- Are back issues available?
I have complete archives going back to the original mailing list in 1986.
The complete archives are about 3 megabytes, and are growing at about 100K
per month. People with ftp access can get them from primost.cs.wisc.edu,
where James Larus has kindly provided space. Sooner or later I will set up
an automated mail server, but in the meantime I handle requests by hand.
Please don't ask me to send you a full set of back issues, you won't get
them.
Regards,
John Levine, comp.compilers moderator
--
Send compilers articles to compilers@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us
{ima | spdcc | world}!esegue. Meta-mail to compilers-request@esegue.compilers-request@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) (09/01/90)
This is the comp.compilers monthly message, last edited August 1990.
-- What is comp.compilers?
It is a moderated usenet news group addressing the topics of compilers in
particular and programming language design and implementation in general.
It started in 1986 as a moderated mailing list, but interest quickly grew to
the point where it was promoted to a news group. Recent topics have
included optimization techniques, language design issues, announcements of
new compiler tools, and book reviews.
Messages come from a wide variety of people ranging from undergraduate
students to well-known experts in industry and academia. Authors live all
over the world -- there are regular messages from the U.S, Canada, Europe,
Australia, and Japan, with occasional ones from as far away as Malaysia. I
have no idea how large the readership is, since the anarchic nature of
usenet makes it impossible to tell who reads it, but I wouldn't be surprised
if the total were in the tens of thousands.
Unless there is specific language to the contrary, each message represents
only the personal opinion of its author. I claim no compilation copyright
on comp.compilers. As far as I am concerned, anyone can reproduce any
message for any purpose. Individual authors may retain rights to their
messages, although I will not knowingly post anything that does not permit
at least unlimited non-commercial distribution. If you find comp.compilers
useful in writing a book, producing a product, etc., I would appreciate an
acknowledgement of usenet and comp.compilers.
-- How do I receive it?
By reading comp.compilers on a system that gets net news. People sometimes
ask me to send them messages as mail, but I don't have the resources to
maintain a mailing list as well as a news group. (If you saw my computer,
you'd know why.) If you absolutely cannot get net news, ask a nearby site
that does get it to forward messages to you as mail.
As far as I know, there are no formal forwarders to other networks or
services, though I would be happy to help set them up if demand warranted it.
-- How do I submit a message?
Mail it to compilers@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, also known as
compilers@esegue.uucp or esegue!compilers. I review messages nearly every
day, usually including weekends, and most messages are posted to the net
within a day after I receive them. Occasionally when I go on vacation there
may be up to a week's delay, though I try to send out a message when that
will happen.
Most net news systems will automatically turn posted messages into mail to
compilers, but some, particularly systems running notes at Hewlett Packard,
don't do that correctly. As a result, I sometimes receive fifty copies of a
message, all mangled slightly differently. Please mail your contributions
unless you're sure your posting software works correctly.
When you send a message to compilers, I understand that to mean that you
want me to post it to usenet, which means it will be sent to tens of
thousands of potential readers at thousands of computers all around the
world. If you don't want me to post something, send it instead to
compilers-request. (See below.)
-- What happens to submitted messages?
Barring mail problems, they arrive in a special mailbox here at esegue. I
then edit the headers, trim down quoted text, fix typos and grammatical
errors, remove cute signatures, and then post them to usenet. If I think a
message needs more editing than that, I return it to the author for
rewriting. The main reasons I return a message are that it appears more
appropriate for another group, the message is too garbled to fix, it
contains too much quoted material relative to the amount of new material, or
I don't understand it. I also usually return messages that directly attack
individuals, since the net has plenty of other places for ad-hominem
battles.
If a message asks a simple question I sometimes answer it myself rather than
posting it. When two or three messages arrive with the same answer to a
question, I usually post only one of them, with a comment crediting the
others.
If you send in a message and don't either see it posted or receive something
back in a few days, it probably got lost in the mail and you should contact
me, preferably via a different mail route. I post or respond to all
messages except for ones that appear to have been sent by mistake, e.g. no
contents, or contents consisting only of another quoted message.
-- How do I respond to the author of a message?
I try to be sure that every message contains valid From: and Reply-To:
headers. The automatic "reply" commands in most news readers let you send
mail to the author.
Some obsolete news readers attempt to reply using the Path: header, but for
technical reasons the Path: header in a moderated message cannot point to
the actual author. In fact, the Path: header in a compilers message is
deliberately a bad mail address, so if you have such a news reader you'll
have to edit the addresses in responses yourself and, I hope, encourage your
system manager to update your news and mail software.
Sometimes mail to an author bounces, either because a gateway isn't working
or because the return address is unregistered or otherwise bad. Please
don't ask me to forward it, my machine is no better connected than anyone
else's. (It's not on the Internet and only talks uucp.)
-- How do I contact the moderator?
Send me mail at compilers-request@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us. If for some
reason your system chokes on that address (it shouldn't, it's registered)
mail to Levine@yale.edu will get to me. I treat messages to
compilers-request as private messages to me unless they state that they are
for publication.
-- Are back issues available?
I have complete archives going back to the original mailing list in 1986.
The archives now fill about 3 megabytes, and are growing at about 100K per
month. People with ftp access can get them from primost.cs.wisc.edu, where
James Larus has kindly provided space. Sooner or later I will set up an
automated mail server, but in the meantime I handle requests by hand. Don't
ask for a full set of back issues by mail, you won't get them.
Regards,
John Levine, comp.compilers moderator
--
Send compilers articles to compilers@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us
{ima | spdcc | world}!esegue. Meta-mail to compilers-request@esegue.compilers-request@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) (10/01/90)
This is the comp.compilers monthly message, last edited October 1990.
-- What is comp.compilers?
It is a moderated usenet news group addressing the topics of compilers in
particular and programming language design and implementation in general.
It started in 1986 as a moderated mailing list, but interest quickly grew to
the point where it was promoted to a news group. Recent topics have
included optimization techniques, language design issues, announcements of
new compiler tools, and book reviews.
Messages come from a wide variety of people ranging from undergraduate
students to well-known experts in industry and academia. Authors live all
over the world -- there are regular messages from the U.S, Canada, Europe,
Australia, and Japan, with occasional ones from as far away as Malaysia. I
have no idea how large the readership is, since the anarchic nature of
usenet makes it impossible to tell who reads it, but I wouldn't be surprised
if the total were in the tens of thousands.
Unless there is specific language to the contrary, each message represents
only the personal opinion of its author. I claim no compilation copyright
on comp.compilers. As far as I am concerned, anyone can reproduce any
message for any purpose. Individual authors may retain rights to their
messages, although I will not knowingly post anything that does not permit
at least unlimited non-commercial distribution. If you find comp.compilers
useful in writing a book, producing a product, etc., I would appreciate an
acknowledgement of usenet and comp.compilers.
-- How do I receive it?
By reading comp.compilers on a system that gets net news. People sometimes
ask me to send them messages as mail, but I don't have the resources to
maintain a mailing list as well as a news group. (If you saw my computer,
you'd know why.) If you absolutely cannot get net news, ask a nearby site
that does get it to forward messages to you as mail.
As far as I know, there are no formal forwarders to other networks or
services, though I would be happy to help set them up if demand warranted it.
-- How do I submit a message?
Mail it to compilers@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, also known as
compilers@esegue.uucp or esegue!compilers. I review messages nearly every
day, usually including weekends, and most messages are posted to the net
within a day after I receive them. Occasionally when I go on vacation there
may be up to a week's delay, though I try to send out a message when that
will happen.
Most net news systems will automatically turn posted messages into mail to
compilers, but some, particularly systems running notes at Hewlett Packard,
don't do that correctly. As a result, I sometimes receive fifty copies of a
message, all mangled slightly differently. Please mail your contributions
unless you're sure your posting software works correctly.
When you send a message to compilers, I understand that to mean that you
want me to post it to usenet, which means it will be sent to tens of
thousands of potential readers at thousands of computers all around the
world. If you don't want me to post something, send it instead to
compilers-request. (See below.)
-- What happens to submitted messages?
Barring mail problems, they arrive in a special mailbox here at esegue. I
then edit the headers, trim down quoted text, fix typos and grammatical
errors, remove cute signatures, and then post them to usenet. If I think a
message needs more editing than that, I return it to the author for
rewriting. The main reasons I return a message are that it appears more
appropriate for another group, the message is too garbled to fix, it
contains too much quoted material relative to the amount of new material, or
I don't understand it. I also usually return messages that directly attack
individuals, since the net has plenty of other places for ad-hominem
battles.
If a message asks a simple question I sometimes answer it myself rather than
posting it. When two or three messages arrive with the same answer to a
question, I usually post only one of them, with a comment crediting the
others.
If you send in a message and don't either see it posted or receive something
back in a few days, it probably got lost in the mail and you should contact
me, preferably via a different mail route. I post or respond to all
messages except for ones that appear to have been sent by mistake, e.g. no
contents, or contents consisting only of another quoted message. Sometimes
when I'm feeling exasperated I disregard messages that re-ask one of the
frequently asked questions that are answered below.
-- How do I respond to the author of a message?
I try to be sure that every message contains valid From: and Reply-To:
headers. The automatic "reply" commands in most news readers let you send
mail to the author.
Some obsolete news readers attempt to reply using the Path: header, but for
technical reasons the Path: header in a moderated message cannot point to
the actual author. In fact, the Path: header in a compilers message is
deliberately a bad mail address, so if you have such a news reader you'll
have to edit the addresses in responses yourself and, I hope, encourage your
system manager to update your news and mail software.
Sometimes mail to an author bounces, either because a gateway isn't working
or because the return address is unregistered or otherwise bad. Please
don't ask me to forward it, my machine is no better connected than anyone
else's. (It's not on the Internet and only talks uucp.)
-- How do I contact the moderator?
Send me mail at compilers-request@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us. If for some
reason your system chokes on that address (it shouldn't, it's registered)
mail to Levine@yale.edu will get to me. I treat messages to
compilers-request as private messages to me unless they state that they are
for publication.
-- Are back issues available?
I have complete archives going back to the original mailing list in 1986.
The archives now fill about 3 megabytes, and are growing at about 100K per
month. People with ftp access can get them from primost.cs.wisc.edu, where
James Larus has kindly provided space. Sooner or later I will set up an
automated mail server, but in the meantime I handle requests by hand. Don't
ask for a full set of back issues by mail, you won't get them.
-- Some frequently asked questions:
Where can I get a C grammar in yacc?
I have a free one that I send out on request. GCC is based on a yacc
grammar and is available via FTP from expo.lcs.mit.edu, among other places.
Where can I get a Fortran grammar in yacc?
I have a small subset parser that I send out on request. The F2C Fortran
to C translator is available in source form via FTP from research.att.com
and by mail from netlib@research.att.com
How can I get started with yacc and lex?
By reading any of the many books on the topic such as the compilers text
by Aho, Sethi, and Ullman, the recent text by Holub which contains
detailed source listings, or the Nutshell guide published by O'Reilly.
Regards,
John Levine, comp.compilers moderator
--
Send compilers articles to compilers@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us
{ima | spdcc | world}!esegue. Meta-mail to compilers-request@esegue.compilers-request@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) (11/03/90)
This is the comp.compilers monthly message, last edited October 1990.
-- What is comp.compilers?
It is a moderated usenet news group addressing the topics of compilers in
particular and programming language design and implementation in general.
It started in 1986 as a moderated mailing list, but interest quickly grew to
the point where it was promoted to a news group. Recent topics have
included optimization techniques, language design issues, announcements of
new compiler tools, and book reviews.
Messages come from a wide variety of people ranging from undergraduate
students to well-known experts in industry and academia. Authors live all
over the world -- there are regular messages from the U.S, Canada, Europe,
Australia, and Japan, with occasional ones from as far away as Malaysia. I
have no idea how large the readership is, since the anarchic nature of
usenet makes it impossible to tell who reads it, but I wouldn't be surprised
if the total were in the tens of thousands.
Unless there is specific language to the contrary, each message represents
only the personal opinion of its author. I claim no compilation copyright
on comp.compilers. As far as I am concerned, anyone can reproduce any
message for any purpose. Individual authors may retain rights to their
messages, although I will not knowingly post anything that does not permit
at least unlimited non-commercial distribution. If you find comp.compilers
useful in writing a book, producing a product, etc., I would appreciate an
acknowledgement of usenet and comp.compilers.
-- How do I receive it?
By reading comp.compilers on a system that gets net news. People sometimes
ask me to send them messages as mail, but I don't have the resources to
maintain a mailing list as well as a news group. (If you saw my computer,
you'd know why.) If you absolutely cannot get net news, ask a nearby site
that does get it to forward messages to you as mail.
As far as I know, there are no formal forwarders to other networks or
services, though I would be happy to help set them up if demand warranted it.
-- How do I submit a message?
Mail it to compilers@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, also known as
compilers@esegue.uucp or esegue!compilers. I review messages nearly every
day, usually including weekends, and most messages are posted to the net
within a day after I receive them. Occasionally when I go on vacation there
may be up to a week's delay, though I try to send out a message when that
will happen.
Most net news systems will automatically turn posted messages into mail to
compilers, but some, particularly systems running notes at Hewlett Packard,
don't do that correctly. As a result, I sometimes receive fifty copies of a
message, all mangled slightly differently. Please mail your contributions
unless you're sure your posting software works correctly.
When you send a message to compilers, I understand that to mean that you
want me to post it to usenet, which means it will be sent to tens of
thousands of potential readers at thousands of computers all around the
world. If you don't want me to post something, send it instead to
compilers-request. (See below.)
-- What happens to submitted messages?
Barring mail problems, they arrive in a special mailbox here at esegue. I
then edit the headers, trim down quoted text, fix typos and grammatical
errors, remove cute signatures, and then post them to usenet. If I think a
message needs more editing than that, I return it to the author for
rewriting. The main reasons I return a message are that it appears more
appropriate for another group, the message is too garbled to fix, it
contains too much quoted material relative to the amount of new material, or
I don't understand it. I also usually return messages that directly attack
individuals, since the net has plenty of other places for ad-hominem
battles.
If a message asks a simple question I sometimes answer it myself rather than
posting it. When two or three messages arrive with the same answer to a
question, I usually post only one of them, with a comment crediting the
others.
If you send in a message and don't either see it posted or receive something
back in a few days, it probably got lost in the mail and you should contact
me, preferably via a different mail route. I post or respond to all
messages except for ones that appear to have been sent by mistake, e.g. no
contents, or contents consisting only of another quoted message. Sometimes
when I'm feeling exasperated I disregard messages that re-ask one of the
frequently asked questions that are answered below.
One of the most time-consuming jobs in moderating the group is trimming down
the quotes in followup articles. In most cases, you can expect readers to
have seen the previous article, so only a few lines of quoted text should be
needed to remind the reader of the context.
I have installed a simple-minded quote filter that mechanically returns to
the sender any message that contains more quoted than unquoted lines. Please
edit your quotes before you send in a response, to avoid having the filter
bounce your message.
-- How do I respond to the author of a message?
I try to be sure that every message contains valid From: and Reply-To:
headers. The automatic "reply" commands in most news readers let you send
mail to the author.
Some obsolete news readers attempt to reply using the Path: header, but for
technical reasons the Path: header in a moderated message cannot point to
the actual author. In fact, the Path: header in a compilers message is
deliberately a bad mail address, so if you have such a news reader you'll
have to edit the addresses in responses yourself and, I hope, encourage your
system manager to update your news and mail software.
Sometimes mail to an author bounces, either because a gateway isn't working
or because the return address is unregistered or otherwise bad. Please
don't ask me to forward it, my machine is no better connected than anyone
else's. (It's not on the Internet and only talks uucp.)
-- How do I contact the moderator?
Send me mail at compilers-request@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us. If for some
reason your system chokes on that address (it shouldn't, it's registered)
mail to Levine@yale.edu will get to me. I treat messages to
compilers-request as private messages to me unless they state that they are
for publication.
-- Are back issues available?
I have complete archives going back to the original mailing list in 1986.
The archives now fill about 3 megabytes, and are growing at about 100K per
month. People with ftp access can get them from primost.cs.wisc.edu, where
James Larus has kindly provided space. Sooner or later I will set up an
automated mail server, but in the meantime I handle requests by hand. Don't
ask for a full set of back issues by mail, you won't get them.
-- Some frequently asked questions:
Where can I get a C grammar in yacc?
I have a free one that I send out on request. GCC is based on a yacc
grammar and is available via FTP from expo.lcs.mit.edu, among other places.
Where can I get a Fortran grammar in yacc?
I have a small subset parser that I send out on request. The F2C Fortran
to C translator is available in source form via FTP from research.att.com
and by mail from netlib@research.att.com
How can I get started with yacc and lex?
By reading any of the many books on the topic such as the compilers text
by Aho, Sethi, and Ullman, the recent text by Holub which contains
detailed source listings, or the Nutshell guide published by O'Reilly.
Regards,
John Levine, comp.compilers moderator
--
Send compilers articles to compilers@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us
{ima | spdcc | world}!esegue. Meta-mail to compilers-request@esegue.compilers-request@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) (01/01/91)
This is the comp.compilers monthly message, last edited January 1991.
NOTE: At the end of this message are some answers to frequently asked
questions. Please read them before you post.
-- What is comp.compilers?
It is a moderated usenet news group addressing the topics of compilers in
particular and programming language design and implementation in general.
It started in 1986 as a moderated mailing list, but interest quickly grew to
the point where it was promoted to a news group. Recent topics have
included optimization techniques, language design issues, announcements of
new compiler tools, and book reviews.
Messages come from a wide variety of people ranging from undergraduate
students to well-known experts in industry and academia. Authors live all
over the world -- there are regular messages from the U.S, Canada, Europe,
Australia, and Japan, with occasional ones from as far away as Malaysia. I
have no idea how large the readership is, since the anarchic nature of
usenet makes it impossible to tell who reads it, but I wouldn't be surprised
if the total were in the tens of thousands.
Unless there is specific language to the contrary, each message represents
only the personal opinion of its author. I claim no compilation copyright
on comp.compilers. As far as I am concerned, anyone can reproduce any
message for any purpose. Individual authors may retain rights to their
messages, although I will not knowingly post anything that does not permit
at least unlimited non-commercial distribution. If you find comp.compilers
useful in writing a book, producing a product, etc., I would appreciate an
acknowledgement of usenet and comp.compilers.
-- How do I receive it?
By reading comp.compilers on a system that gets net news. People sometimes
ask me to send them messages as mail, but I don't have the resources to
maintain a mailing list as well as a news group. (If you saw my computer,
you'd know why.) If you absolutely cannot get net news, ask a nearby site
that does get it to forward messages to you as mail.
As far as I know, there are no formal forwarders to other networks or
services, though I would be happy to help set them up if demand warranted it.
-- How do I submit a message?
Mail it to compilers@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, also known as compilers@iecc.uucp
or iecc!compilers. (iecc used to be known as esegue, some sites with stale
routing data may still have that name.) I review messages nearly every day,
usually including weekends, and most messages are posted to the net within a
day after I receive them. Occasionally when I go on vacation there may be up
to a week's delay, though I try to send out a message when that will happen.
Most net news systems will automatically turn posted messages into mail to
compilers, but some, particularly systems running notes at Hewlett Packard,
don't do that correctly. As a result, I sometimes receive fifty copies of a
message, all mangled slightly differently. Please mail your contributions
unless you're sure your posting software works correctly.
When you send a message to compilers, I understand that to mean that you
want me to post it to usenet, which means it will be sent to tens of
thousands of potential readers at thousands of computers all around the
world. If you don't want me to post something, send it instead to
compilers-request. (See below.)
-- What happens to submitted messages?
Barring mail problems, they arrive in a special mailbox here at iecc. I
then edit the headers, trim down quoted text, fix typos and grammatical
errors, remove cute signatures, and then post them to usenet. If I think a
message needs more editing than that, I return it to the author for
rewriting. The main reasons I return a message are that it appears more
appropriate for another group, the message is too garbled to fix, it
contains too much quoted material relative to the amount of new material, or
I don't understand it. I also usually return messages that directly attack
individuals, since the net has plenty of other places for ad-hominem
battles.
If a message asks a simple question I sometimes answer it myself rather than
posting it. When two or three messages arrive with the same answer to a
question, I usually post only one of them, with a comment crediting the
others.
If you send in a message and don't either see it posted or receive something
back in a few days, it probably got lost in the mail and you should contact
me, preferably via a different mail route. I post or respond to all
messages except for ones that appear to have been sent by mistake, e.g. no
contents, or contents consisting only of another quoted message. Sometimes
when I'm feeling exasperated I disregard messages that re-ask one of the
frequently asked questions that are answered below.
One of the most time-consuming jobs in moderating the group is trimming down
the quotes in followup articles. In most cases, you can expect readers to
have seen the previous article, so only a few lines of quoted text should be
needed to remind the reader of the context.
I have installed a simple-minded quote filter that mechanically returns to
the sender any message that contains more quoted than unquoted lines. Please
edit your quotes before you send in a response, to avoid having the filter
bounce your message.
-- How do I respond to the author of a message?
I try to be sure that every message contains valid From: and Reply-To:
headers. The automatic "reply" commands in most news readers let you send
mail to the author.
Some obsolete news readers attempt to reply using the Path: header, but for
technical reasons the Path: header in a moderated message cannot point to
the actual author. In fact, the Path: header in a compilers message is
deliberately a bad mail address, so if you have such a news reader you'll
have to edit the addresses in responses yourself and, I hope, encourage your
system manager to update your news and mail software.
Sometimes mail to an author bounces, either because a gateway isn't working
or because the return address is unregistered or otherwise bad. Please
don't ask me to forward it, my machine is no better connected than anyone
else's. (It's not on the Internet and only talks uucp.)
-- How do I contact the moderator?
Send me mail at compilers-request@iecc.cambridge.ma.us. If for some
reason your system chokes on that address (it shouldn't, it's registered)
mail to Levine@yale.edu will get to me. I treat messages to
compilers-request as private messages to me unless they state that they are
for publication.
-- Are back issues available?
I have complete archives going back to the original mailing list in 1986.
The archives now fill about 3 megabytes, and are growing at about 100K per
month. People with ftp access can get them from primost.cs.wisc.edu, where
James Larus has kindly provided space. Sooner or later I will set up an
automated mail server, but in the meantime I handle requests by hand. Don't
ask for a full set of back issues by mail, you won't get them.
-- Some frequently asked questions:
The various files that I have are in the compilers archive at
primost.cs.wisc.edu.
* Where can I get a C grammar in yacc?
I have a free one. Another one was posted to comp.sources.unix in June 1990,
v13 i52, archive name ansi-c_su. GCC is based on a yacc grammar and is
available via FTP from prep.lcs.mit.edu, among other places.
* Where can I get a Fortran grammar in yacc?
I have a small subset parser. The F2C Fortran to C translator contains a
full F77 parser and is available in source form via FTP from research.att.com
and by mail from netlib@research.att.com
* Where can I get a Pascal grammar in yacc?
I have one of those, too, though I haven't tried to use it.
* How can I get started with yacc and lex?
By reading any of the many books on the topic. Here are a few of them:
Aho, Sethi, and Ullman, "Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools,"
Addison Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-10088-6. Describes clearly and
completely lexing and parsing techniques including the ones in yacc and
lex. The authors work or have worked at Bell Labs with Steve Johnson and
Mike Lesk, the authors of Yacc and Lex.
Alan Holub, "Compiler Design in C," Prentice-Hall, 1990, ISBN
0-13-155045-4. A large book containing the complete source code to a
reimplementation of yacc and lex. Quite well written, too, though it has
a lot of errors.
Mason and Brown, "lex & yacc," O'Reilly, 1990, ISBN 0-937175-49-8. A
short introduction with some completely worked out examples. The writing
can be murky, but the next edition should be better.
Donnely and Stallman, "The Bison Manual," part of the on-line distrubution
of the FSF's Bison, a reimplementation of yacc. As with everything else from
the FSF, full source code is included.
These are the ones on my shelf. If anyone sends in others, I'll be happy
to add them to the list.
Regards,
John Levine, comp.compilers moderator
--
Send compilers articles to compilers@iecc.cambridge.ma.us or
{ima | spdcc | world}!iecc!compilers. Meta-mail to compilers-request.compilers-request@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) (02/02/91)
This is the comp.compilers monthly message, last edited February 1991.
NOTE: At the end of this message are some answers to frequently asked
questions. Please read them before you post.
-- What is comp.compilers?
It is a moderated usenet news group addressing the topics of compilers in
particular and programming language design and implementation in general.
It started in 1986 as a moderated mailing list, but interest quickly grew to
the point where it was promoted to a news group. Recent topics have
included optimization techniques, language design issues, announcements of
new compiler tools, and book reviews.
Messages come from a wide variety of people ranging from undergraduate
students to well-known experts in industry and academia. Authors live all
over the world -- there are regular messages from the U.S, Canada, Europe,
Australia, and Japan, with occasional ones from as far away as Malaysia. I
have no idea how large the readership is, since the anarchic nature of
usenet makes it impossible to tell who reads it, but I wouldn't be surprised
if the total were in the tens of thousands.
Unless there is specific language to the contrary, each message represents
only the personal opinion of its author. I claim no compilation copyright
on comp.compilers. As far as I am concerned, anyone can reproduce any
message for any purpose. Individual authors may retain rights to their
messages, although I will not knowingly post anything that does not permit
at least unlimited non-commercial distribution. If you find comp.compilers
useful in writing a book, producing a product, etc., I would appreciate an
acknowledgement of usenet and comp.compilers.
-- How do I receive it?
By reading comp.compilers on a system that gets net news. People sometimes
ask me to send them messages as mail, but I don't have the resources to
maintain a mailing list as well as a news group. (If you saw my computer,
you'd know why.) If you absolutely cannot get net news, ask a nearby site
that does get it to forward messages to you as mail.
As far as I know, there are no formal forwarders to other networks or
services, though I would be happy to help set them up if demand warranted it.
-- How do I submit a message?
Mail it to compilers@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, also known as compilers@iecc.uucp
or iecc!compilers. (iecc used to be known as esegue, some sites with stale
routing data may still have that name.) I review messages nearly every day,
usually including weekends, and most messages are posted to the net within a
day after I receive them. Occasionally when I go on vacation there may be up
to a week's delay, though I try to send out a message when that will happen.
Most net news systems will automatically turn posted messages into mail to
compilers, but some, particularly systems running notes at Hewlett Packard,
don't do that correctly. As a result, I sometimes receive fifty copies of a
message, all mangled slightly differently. Please mail your contributions
unless you're sure your posting software works correctly.
When you send a message to compilers, I understand that to mean that you
want me to post it to usenet, which means it will be sent to tens of
thousands of potential readers at thousands of computers all around the
world. If you don't want me to post something, send it instead to
compilers-request. (See below.)
-- What happens to submitted messages?
Barring mail problems, they arrive in a special mailbox here at iecc. I
then edit the headers, trim down quoted text, fix typos and grammatical
errors, remove cute signatures, and then post them to usenet. If I think a
message needs more editing than that, I return it to the author for
rewriting. The main reasons I return a message are that it appears more
appropriate for another group, the message is too garbled to fix, it
contains too much quoted material relative to the amount of new material, or
I don't understand it. I also usually return messages that directly attack
individuals, since the net has plenty of other places for ad-hominem
battles.
If a message asks a simple question I sometimes answer it myself rather than
posting it. When two or three messages arrive with the same answer to a
question, I usually post only one of them, with a comment crediting the
others.
If you send in a message and don't either see it posted or receive something
back in a few days, it probably got lost in the mail and you should contact
me, preferably via a different mail route. I post or respond to all
messages except for ones that appear to have been sent by mistake, e.g. no
contents, or contents consisting only of another quoted message. Sometimes
when I'm feeling exasperated I disregard messages that re-ask one of the
frequently asked questions that are answered below.
One of the most time-consuming jobs in moderating the group is trimming down
the quotes in followup articles. In most cases, you can expect readers to
have seen the previous article, so only a few lines of quoted text should be
needed to remind the reader of the context.
I have installed a simple-minded quote filter that mechanically returns to
the sender any message that contains more quoted than unquoted lines. Please
edit your quotes before you send in a response, to avoid having the filter
bounce your message.
-- How do I respond to the author of a message?
I try to be sure that every message contains valid From: and Reply-To:
headers. The automatic "reply" commands in most news readers let you send
mail to the author.
Some obsolete news readers attempt to reply using the Path: header, but for
technical reasons the Path: header in a moderated message cannot point to
the actual author. In fact, the Path: header in a compilers message is
deliberately a bad mail address, so if you have such a news reader you'll
have to edit the addresses in responses yourself and, I hope, encourage your
system manager to update your news and mail software.
Sometimes mail to an author bounces, either because a gateway isn't working
or because the return address is unregistered or otherwise bad. Please
don't ask me to forward it, my machine is no better connected than anyone
else's. (It's not on the Internet and only talks uucp.)
-- How do I contact the moderator?
Send me mail at compilers-request@iecc.cambridge.ma.us. If for some
reason your system chokes on that address (it shouldn't, it's registered)
mail to Levine@yale.edu will get to me. I treat messages to
compilers-request as private messages to me unless they state that they are
for publication.
-- Are back issues available?
I have complete archives going back to the original mailing list in 1986.
The archives now fill about 3 megabytes, and are growing at about 100K per
month. People with ftp access can get them from primost.cs.wisc.edu, where
James Larus has kindly provided space. Sooner or later I will set up an
automated mail server, but in the meantime I handle requests by hand. Don't
ask for a full set of back issues by mail, you won't get them.
-- Some frequently asked questions:
The various files that I have are in the compilers archive at
primost.cs.wisc.edu.
* Where can I get a C grammar in yacc?
I have a free one. Another one was posted to comp.sources.unix in June 1990,
v13 i52, archive name ansi-c_su. GCC is based on a yacc grammar and is
available via FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu, among other places.
* Where can I get a Fortran grammar in yacc?
I have a small subset parser. The F2C Fortran to C translator contains a
full F77 parser and is available in source form via FTP from research.att.com
and by mail from netlib@research.att.com
* Where can I get a Pascal grammar in yacc?
I have one of those, too, though I haven't tried to use it.
* Where can I get a Cobol grammar in yacc?
Nowhere, as far as I can tell. This question is asked every few months
and there has never, ever, been any response. I wouldn't think it would
be very hard -- perhaps some of the interested people could get together
and write one.
* How can I get started with yacc and lex?
By reading any of the many books on the topic. Here are a few of them:
Aho, Sethi, and Ullman, "Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools,"
Addison Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-10088-6. Describes clearly and
completely lexing and parsing techniques including the ones in yacc and
lex. The authors work or have worked at Bell Labs with Steve Johnson and
Mike Lesk, the authors of Yacc and Lex.
Alan Holub, "Compiler Design in C," Prentice-Hall, 1990, ISBN
0-13-155045-4. A large book containing the complete source code to a
reimplementation of yacc and lex. Quite well written, too, though it has
a lot of errors.
Mason and Brown, "lex & yacc," O'Reilly, 1990, ISBN 0-937175-49-8. A
short introduction with some completely worked out examples. The writing
in the 1990 edition can be murky, but the next edition should be better.
Donnely and Stallman, "The Bison Manual," part of the on-line distrubution
of the FSF's Bison, a reimplementation of yacc. As with everything else from
the FSF, full source code is included.
Axel T. Schreiner and H. George Friedman, Jr., "Introduction to Compiler
Construction with UNIX," Prentice-Hall, 1985. Oriented to tutorial work.
Good for beginners. Develops a small subset-of-C compiler through the book.
(Recommended by Eric Hughes <hughes@ocf.Berkeley.EDU>.)
These are the ones on my shelf. If anyone sends in others, I'll be happy
to add them to the list.
Regards,
John Levine, comp.compilers moderator
--
Send compilers articles to compilers@iecc.cambridge.ma.us or
{ima | spdcc | world}!iecc!compilers. Meta-mail to compilers-request.