Re: Questions on In Scope for INFORM


5 Apr 1995 23:49:29 GMT

In article <GDR11.95Apr4222823@stint.cl.cam.ac.uk>, gdr11@cl.cam.ac.uk (Gareth Rees) writes:
|>
|> Incidentally, the curious design of the Inform parser makes it possible
|> for it to run on machines with small memories.

Keeping a parse tree in memory has nothing to do with
the parsing technique. There's no reason why a standard
LL or LR parser could not be written that is just as
memory efficient.

|> As such, it is a work of art!

A nicely written recursive descent parser is a work
of art, too. In my opinion it is one of the most
elegant things that has come out of computer science!

|> Gareth Rees

Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept, +--------------------------------------+
University of Canterbury, | A citizen of NewZealandCorp, a |
Christchurch, New Zealand | wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan Inc.|
greg@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz +--------------------------------------+