heuring@BOULDER.COLORADO.EDU (Vincent Heuring) (02/07/89)
Dave Berry <lfcs.edinburgh.ac.uk!db@NSS.CS.UCL.AC.UK> Writes: >The following references describe scanner generators that are claimed to >produce smaller and faster scanners than Lex. ... > >@Article(gla, > Author="V. P. Heuring", > Title="The Automatic Generation of Fast Lexical Analysers", > Journal="Software Practice and Experience", > Volume="16", Number="9", Pages="801-808", Month="Sep", Year="1986") So far as I know, GLA still generates the fastest scanners for programming languages.[1] With some 50 copies of GLA having been released, We have had criticism that the input specification langugage for GLA was inflexible.[2] That has now been fixed.[3] GLA now permits regular expressions, as well as having a library of the more frequently used regular expressions. This means that the user may be able to generate a scanner without writing regular expressions, but may do so if it is necessary. GLA also comes with a library of 'processors' that permit hash-table storage of internal forms of scanned identifiers, integers, etc. The user may also escape to a custom written scanner, if necessary. For a copy of the documentation, or a beta release of the new GLA (it is presently known as gamma-GLA) mail to Bob Gray: bob@colorado.EDU. I am presently writing up the details of our experience with GLA for SP&E. [1] %A W. M. Waite %T The Cost of Lexical Analysis %P 473-488 %J SPE %V 16 %N 5 %D MAY 1986 [2] %A William M. Waite %A Vincent P. Heuring %A Robert W. Gray %T GLA \(em A Generator for Lexical Analyzers %P 17 %R User Manual %I Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Colorado %C Boulder, CO %D APR 1986 [3] %A Robert Gray %T GLA - A Generator for Lexical Analyzers That Programmers Can Use %J Proceedings of the Summer 1988 USENIX Conference %C San Francisco %D June 1988 | Vincent Heuring | | Dep't of Electrical & Computer Engineering | | University of Colorado - Boulder | | heuring@colorado.EDU | -- Send compilers articles to ima!compilers or, in a pinch, to Levine@YALE.EDU Plausible paths are { decvax | harvard | yale | bbn}!ima Please send responses to the originator of the message -- I cannot forward mail accidentally sent back to compilers. Meta-mail to ima!compilers-request