From nobody@digitalkingdom.org Tue Oct 28 18:24:19 2008 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-beginners); Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:24:19 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nobody by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1KuznH-0006hK-7u for lojban-beginners-real@lojban.org; Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:24:19 -0700 Received: from rlpowell by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1KuznH-0006hD-6I; Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:24:19 -0700 Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:24:19 -0700 From: Robin Lee Powell To: lojban-list@lojban.org, llg-members@lojban.org, lojban-beginners@lojban.org Subject: [lojban-beginners] Re: [lojban] Re: [llg-members] A challenge for computer science/programming geeks: The LLG wants to give you $500! Message-ID: <20081029012419.GM26657@digitalkingdom.org> Mail-Followup-To: lojban-list@lojban.org, llg-members@lojban.org, lojban-beginners@lojban.org References: <20081028215134.GK31434@digitalkingdom.org> <925d17560810281730t6ab2f3c3i860e7b086de5aa4c@mail.gmail.com> <20081029005927.GH26657@digitalkingdom.org> <925d17560810281820m5bf3844ey27fd29da6e44a716@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <925d17560810281820m5bf3844ey27fd29da6e44a716@mail.gmail.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.18 (2008-05-17) X-archive-position: 950 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-beginners-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-beginners-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-beginners@lojban.org X-list: lojban-beginners On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 10:20:12PM -0300, Jorge Llambías wrote: > On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 9:59 PM, Robin Lee Powell > wrote: > > > > If the grammar is ambiguous, I think you've failed to make a > > grammar for Lojban. > > A CFG is a set of rules that generates each and only the valid > strings of the language. Unambiguity is desirable for a parsing > grammar (which we already have, the PEG), but a generating grammar > that generates all the Lojban strings is also a grammar for > Lojban, even if it has more than one way to generate the same > valid string. I don't believe, but am not certain, that that is possible. That is, I believe that if there is more than one way to generate a string, you've describe an ambiguous language, and that such a description would not, in fact, describe Lojban. > A machine that generated its output from such a grammar would > generate valid Lojban. If you want an unambiguous CFG (which is > obviously a somewhat harder problem) I think you need to specify > it. Then please, everyone, consider it so specified. Apologies for triple posting again, but if xorxes is right this is important. -Robin -- They say: "The first AIs will be built by the military as weapons." And I'm thinking: "Does it even occur to you to try for something other than the default outcome?" -- http://shorl.com/tydruhedufogre http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/ *** http://www.lojban.org/