type or identifier fundamental parsing issue - Need help from parsing experts

Path	csiph.com!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder3.hal-mli.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder1.hal-mli.net!news.misty.com!news.iecc.com!.POSTED!nerds-end
From	AD <hsad005@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.compilers
Subject	type or identifier fundamental parsing issue - Need help from parsing experts
Date	Tue, 3 Jul 2012 11:30:48 -0700 (PDT)
Organization	Compilers Central
Lines	33
Sender	johnl@iecc.com
Approved	comp.compilers@iecc.com
Message-ID	<12-07-004@comp.compilers> (permalink)
NNTP-Posting-Host	news.iecc.com
Mime-Version	1.0
Content-Type	text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding	7bit
X-Trace	leila.iecc.com 1341369148 99699 64.57.183.58 (4 Jul 2012 02:32:28 GMT)
X-Complaints-To	abuse@iecc.com
NNTP-Posting-Date	Wed, 4 Jul 2012 02:32:28 +0000 (UTC)
Keywords	parse, types, design, question
Posted-Date	03 Jul 2012 22:32:28 EDT
X-submission-address	compilers@iecc.com
X-moderator-address	compilers-request@iecc.com
X-FAQ-and-archives	http://compilers.iecc.com
Xref	csiph.com comp.compilers:704

Show key headers only | View raw

Greetings All,

I am dealing with a programming langauge that supports something like
sizeof(<typename>) as well as sizeof(<variable-name>) expression.

For parsing such a construct, one would need a parser/yacc rule somewhat like
the following:

SIZEOF_KEYWORD '(' IDENTIFIER ')'

The fundamemtal problem in the rules of the language (that I am dealing with)
is that its lookup/resolution rule *doesn't* allow me to check in symbol table
if that 'IDENTIFIER' is a type or non-type variable. Problem is, this language
supports certain constructs which can potentially/later make such early
lookup/resolution decisions wrong. In short, name resolutions in this langauge
(as per the langauge definition) can only be initiated after the entire source
code has been completely parsed/seen.

Given this restriction, I will probably have to delay/defer the decision of,
whether we saw a 'type' or a non-type variable (with the 'sizeof' operator) to
"semantic check phase".

On the other hand, some people/experts believe that such decisions of whether
something is a type or non-type idernfier has to be frozen/finished during
parsing and *SHOULD NOT* be deferred/delayed to 'semantic check phase'.

I am not an expert compiler researcher/scientist, so am seeking some opinion
here, if you happen to have a sound knowledge on this issue.

Many thanks.

Regards,
AD

Back to comp.compilers | Previous | Next — Next in thread | Find similar

Thread

type or identifier fundamental parsing issue - Need help from parsing experts AD <hsad005@gmail.com> - 2012-07-03 11:30 -0700
  Re: type or identifier fundamental parsing issue - Need help from parsing experts George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2012-07-04 00:57 -0400
    Re: type or identifier fundamental parsing issue - Need help from parsing experts torbenm@diku.dk (Torben Ægidius Mogensen) - 2012-07-11 12:17 +0200
  Re: type or identifier fundamental parsing issue - Need help from parsing experts Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@aol.com> - 2012-07-04 11:43 +0100
    Re: C arcana, was type or identifier fundamental parsing issue - Need help from parsing experts "christian.bau" <christian.bau@cbau.wanadoo.co.uk> - 2012-07-12 09:23 -0700

csiph-web