From lojbab@lojban.org Sun Jul 15 07:08:04 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: lojbab@lojban.org X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_2_0); 15 Jul 2001 14:08:04 -0000 Received: (qmail 90069 invoked from network); 15 Jul 2001 14:08:03 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by l10.egroups.com with QMQP; 15 Jul 2001 14:08:03 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO stmpy-4.cais.net) (205.252.14.74) by mta3 with SMTP; 15 Jul 2001 14:08:03 -0000 Received: from bob.lojban.org (179.dynamic.cais.com [207.226.56.179]) by stmpy-4.cais.net (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id f6FE81291237 for ; Sun, 15 Jul 2001 10:08:02 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <4.3.2.7.2.20010715090507.00be4440@127.0.0.1> X-Sender: vir1036/pop.cais.com@127.0.0.1 X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3.2 Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2001 10:11:54 -0400 To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [lojban] the formal grammars' utility In-Reply-To: References: <4.3.2.7.2.20010714124253.00b6c2b0@127.0.0.1> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" At 02:16 AM 07/15/2001 +0100, And wrote: >Lojbab: > > At 04:40 PM 07/14/2001 +0100, And Rosta wrote: > > >1. What use is the EBNF grammar, given that it can't be used instead of > > >YACC? > > > > Some people find it easier to understand than the YACC grammar because the > > rules are compressed into a more language-grammar-like form. > >Am I mistaken in thinking that the EBNF in the book contains less info >than the YACC? According to the guy who did it (originally Cowan, but later another person - Clark Nelson, I think his name is) it SHOULD contain the full language. > For instance, trying to answer my own question of earlier >today about DOI, I find that "vocative415 = (COI [NAI])...& DOI", but >find nothing about the expansion of DOI, whereas I do find this info >under vocative_35 and DOI_415 in YACC. I think it is note (6) before the BNF text that says that the symbol "&" in A & B means A or B or A B so the rule for vocative415 allows COI(NAI) DOI COI(NAI)DOI > > >2. Is there a downloadable version of YACC ordered alphabetically (or > > >in any way such that one knows whereabouts in the rule list to find the > > >expansion for a given node)? > > > > The YACC grammar in the Book has an index that provides this. > >No, the index lists for each phrase the phrases it occurs within, but >it doesn't tell us whereabouts in the YACC grammar text itself the >rule can be found; one has to flick through the pages hunting fairly >randomly. I'm not sure what you are looking for then. All of the rules have numbers on them and the YACC grammar rules are in numerical order, so that finding the definition of a given rule is trivial. Finding what other rules use that given rule takes an index. lojbab -- lojbab lojbab@lojban.org Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org