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Re: C declarations

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supercat@casperkitty.com writes:
> On Wednesday, February 1, 2017 at 9:30:23 AM UTC-6, David Brown wrote:
>> How can you be writing a parser, and complaining about what C does and
>> does not allow, and how other compilers match the standards, when you
>> haven't even bothered to /read/ the standards?  How are you making
>> making your code at the moment - by skim-reading a couple of Wikipedia
>> articles then some trial-and-error runs with a few existing compilers?
>
> The language Dennis Ritchie designed was not processed using a formal grammar,
> nor is a formal grammar the most efficient way to parse that language.  In
> addition, I don't think a formal grammar works well as a human-readable way of
> describing it either.

The earliest C reference manuals, from 1974 and 1975, describe the
syntax using a formal grammar, so the *language* certainly was defined
that way.  If you're making a claim about how Dennis Ritchie's early C
compiler happened to operate, then (a) please be clear about that, and
(b) I fail see the relevance.

> Since some compiler-generation tools are easiest to use when they have a
> formal grammar as a starting point, I think it is reasonable for the Standard
> to provide a grammar and say that implementations are required to handle the
> cases described by the Standard and are not required to handle cases outside
> the grammar.  Given the charter of the Committee, however, I really doubt that
> the Committee intended that compilers should be required to reject forms that
> they had accepted previously and which may be in use by production code.

Compilers are not required to reject anything other than code that uses
a #error directive.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
Working, but not speaking, for JetHead Development, Inc.
"We must do something.  This is something.  Therefore, we must do this."
    -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"

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C declarations BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-01-30 13:00 +0000
  Re: C declarations David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-01-30 14:25 +0100
    Re: C declarations Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-30 11:42 -0800
  Re: C declarations Andrey Tarasevich <andreytarasevich@hotmail.com> - 2017-01-31 13:46 -0800
    Re: C declarations BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-01-31 22:13 +0000
      Re: C declarations Andrey Tarasevich <andreytarasevich@hotmail.com> - 2017-01-31 16:43 -0800
        Re: C declarations Andrey Tarasevich <andreytarasevich@hotmail.com> - 2017-01-31 17:06 -0800
      Re: C declarations Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2017-02-01 17:58 +1300
        Re: C declarations luser droog <luser.droog@gmail.com> - 2017-01-31 22:42 -0800
          Re: C declarations Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2017-02-01 19:48 +1300
            Re: C declarations Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2017-02-01 01:18 -0600
            Re: C declarations David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-02-01 10:10 +0100
              Re: C declarations BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-02-01 11:39 +0000
                Re: C declarations David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-02-01 13:55 +0100
                Re: C declarations BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-02-01 13:22 +0000
                Re: C declarations David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-02-01 16:30 +0100
                Re: C declarations Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-02-01 08:15 -0800
                Re: C declarations supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-02-01 08:44 -0800
                Re: C declarations David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-02-01 20:56 +0100
                Re: C declarations supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-02-01 08:29 -0800
                Re: C declarations BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-02-01 17:24 +0000
                Re: C declarations fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2017-02-01 09:55 -0800
                Re: C declarations BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-02-01 18:44 +0000
                Re: C declarations Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-02-01 11:03 -0800
                Re: C declarations fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2017-02-01 12:26 -0800
                Re: C declarations fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2017-02-01 13:03 -0800
                Re: C declarations fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2017-02-01 13:12 -0800
                Re: C declarations fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2017-02-03 16:07 -0800
                Re: C declarations Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-02-01 10:44 -0800
                Re: C declarations jameskuyper@verizon.net - 2017-02-01 11:08 -0800
                Re: C declarations Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-02-01 10:40 -0800
                Re: C declarations BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-02-01 17:04 +0000
                Re: C declarations Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-02-01 19:58 +0000
                Re: C declarations BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-02-01 21:23 +0000
                Re: C declarations Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-02-01 08:08 -0800
                Re: C declarations Andrey Tarasevich <andreytarasevich@hotmail.com> - 2017-02-01 12:45 -0800
  Re: C declarations Andrey Tarasevich <andreytarasevich@hotmail.com> - 2017-03-06 11:19 -0800
    Re: C declarations Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-03-06 11:27 -0800

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