rmp@inducer.lanl.gov (Rob Pecherer) (05/03/89)
The Center for Human Genome Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory
is trying to locate/acquire the C source for an Interface Description
Language (IDL) Processor. IDL was developed by David Lamb at Carnegie-
Mellon in 1983 under Mary Shaw and William Wulf. An IDL Processor
incorporates the principles of the IDL into a tool for describing the
data structures that are passed between software modules: It overcomes
many engineering problems when the interface requirements and specifications
are changing. Having personally used an implementation (which cannot
be obtained), I can attest to the fact it is a powerful prototyping tool.
Can anybody help? We need the C source. As an alternative, if anyone
knows where David Lamb is, that would probably lead us to it. (Are you
out there David?)
Respond by phone (505-665-1970) or email(rmp@inducer.lanl.gov).
Thanks.
Rob Pecherer
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Center for Human Genome Studies
Division T-10
ms K710
Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545
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Please send responses to the originator of the message -- I cannot forward
mail accidentally sent back to compilers. Meta-mail to ima!compilers-requestuucibg@sw1e.swbt.com (05/04/89)
I recall that someone recently asked for Yacc/Bison and Lex/Flex grammars for
various languages. I would appreciate it if that person would forward to me
what they received. I would also be happy to get stuff from any other source
that I can reach (no ftp so I guess anonymous uucp is the limit). I seem to
recall mention of a proto-grammar for the proposed ANSi C which I would be very
interested to see.
For those curious, I want to do a survey of approaches taken to solving the
parser problem using Yacc(-like) syntax. The source I receive doesn't have to
be PD (which means I'll dig into GNU), it just has to be something I'm allowed
to look at. I would prefer grammars for languages such as C, Pascal, Modula-2,
& Lisp. Why? I don't have much compiler expertise and want to know the
language of the grammar which I'm puzzling over.
Yes, I realize that I may not get much response to this. I also realize that
there's a book out on writing a compiler using yacc and lex, but I would like
some real world examples if possible. Yes, I realize that >70 (80?)% of the
work is *not* done in the grammar; but I hope to still get some usefull info
from this.
If this all seems terribly naive or something, don't blame me, I'm terribly
naive :-).
Thanks much in advance,
Brian R. Gilstrap Southwestern Bell Telephone
One Bell Center Rm 17-G-4 ...!ames!killer!texbell!sw1e!uucibg
St. Louis, MO 63101 ...!bellcore!texbell!sw1e!uucibg
(314) 235-3929 ...!uunet!swbatl!sw1e!uucibg
#include <std_disclaimers.h>
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Please send responses to the originator of the message -- I cannot forward
mail accidentally sent back to compilers. Meta-mail to ima!compilers-requestdalamb@qucis.queensu.CA (David Lamb) (05/04/89)
The only easily-available C-based IDL processor I know of is from the
University of North Carolina. Contact
Richard Snodgrass
Department of Computer Science
New West Hall
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC, 27514
rts@cs.unc.edu
His system is described in Richard Snodgrass (ed.) "The Interface
Description Language: Definition and Use", which just came out from
Computer Science Press (ISBN 0-7167-8198). This is based on the UNC
variant of IDL version 2.0, and is the most complete IDL implementation
I know; it includes the assertion language and processes.
Later this year, John Nestor's Mini-IDL system should become
available. This is a subset of Nestor and Newcomer's "IDL version
3.0", described in a forthcoming book from Prentice-Hall. Nestor has
paid a lot of attention to making this system portable among various C
implementations, though I don't know the full list at the moment. The
tentative title is "IDL: The Language and its Implementation", by
Nestor, Joseph M. Newcomer, Paola Gianninni, and Don Stone.
My own C-based implementation, part of my "Program Component Generator"
project, is perpetually not in good enough shape to ship yet. I have
inflicted it on a few unsuspecting graduate students, but it needs more
work. My ego likes to think my version will be better than the others
(but probably only if Rick and John each stop working!), but for the
moment your best bet is one of these two. Both require a fee, whose
size I don't know since the authors were each kind enough to give me a
free copy.
There is an info-idl mailing list, which appears to be moribund. You
might try sending mail to info-idl-request@tl-20b.tartan.com, my best
guess at the most recent address for the mailing list maintainer. I'd
be delighted to correspond with anyone using (or thinking about) IDL.
David Alex Lamb
Department of Computing and Information Science
Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6
(613) 545-6067
ARPA Internet: David.Lamb@cs.cmu.edu
dalamb@qucis.queensu.ca
uucp: ...!utzoo!utcsri!qucis!dalamb
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