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Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler)

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On Sunday, May 7, 2017 at 7:29:33 PM UTC-7, Joel Rees wrote:
> What am I missing, Alex?
> 
> I don't write lex and yacc (or flex and bison) in Forth because they just get in the way.

Recognizers are a very bad idea. This is an effort to give Forth syntax --- but a fundamental feature of Forth is that it doesn't have syntax --- most people (including myself) got into Forth originally because it was easy to understand and straight-forward.

Right now, the major problem with ANS-Forth is ambiguity, with every ANS-Forth compiler (SwiftForth, VFX and gForth) being incompatible with each other. Recognizers are just more ambiguity. Lots of Forth-200x aspiring leaders will write recognizers in the hope that they will pick up some followers so they can honestly describe themselves as a leaders. All of these recognizers will clash with each other, so you get a balkanization of Forth-200x. Every program will have to declare a dependency as to which recognizers it requires to be installed for the program to work, so none of the programs will be compatible with each other. In many cases you may have the needed recognizers installed for your program to supposedly work, but your program will still not work because of the order that the recognizers were installed.

The Forth-200x committee fail to understand the purpose of a standard --- portability of programs.

Alex McDonald has said on multiple occasions that he: "does standards for a living." He promotes recognizers because they are gratuitous complexity --- he hopes to get promoted to the Forth-200x committee --- his goal with recognizers is to prove to everybody that he is smarter than they are, or at least to confuse everybody, which is pretty much the same thing: 
"If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, then baffle 'em with bull!"

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"Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) Joel Rees <joel.rees@gmail.com> - 2017-05-07 19:29 -0700
  Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) hughaguilar96@gmail.com - 2017-05-07 21:57 -0700
    Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) Alex <alex@rivadpm.com> - 2017-05-08 09:55 +0100
  Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) Alex <alex@rivadpm.com> - 2017-05-08 09:41 +0100
    Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) Joel Rees <joel.rees@gmail.com> - 2017-05-08 21:07 -0700
      Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) Alex <alex@rivadpm.com> - 2017-05-09 07:50 +0100
        Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2017-05-08 21:39 -1000
          Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) "HAA" <someone@microsoft.com> - 2017-05-10 15:27 +1000
            Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) Alex <alex@rivadpm.com> - 2017-05-10 08:21 +0100
              Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) "HAA" <someone@microsoft.com> - 2017-05-10 18:15 +1000
          Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) Joel Rees <joel.rees@gmail.com> - 2017-05-10 00:53 -0700
            Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) Alex <alex@rivadpm.com> - 2017-05-10 08:59 +0100
      Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) mhx@iae.nl - 2017-05-10 02:52 -0700
        Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2017-05-10 11:59 +0200
          Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) Joel Rees <joel.rees@gmail.com> - 2017-05-10 05:46 -0700
          Re: "Recognizing" a parser generator (and a compiler compiler) mhx@iae.nl - 2017-05-10 05:48 -0700

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