[Types-sig] Syntax

[Tim Peters]

[Paul Prescod]
> I cannot believe that nobody in parser-land has written a
> Python-based Python parser that we can hack.

John Aycock's extremely general (any CF grammar, ambiguous or not) parsing
framework comes with a Python grammar.  I know Gordon McMillan hacked on
that to fix some of the productions, but don't know whether John folded that
back in yet (or, indeed, whether G gave it back to J!).  It's probably the
fastest way in the universe to get a parser working -- as well as the
slowest way to actually parse <wink>.  Definitely worth a look, anyway.

> Whatever happened to the ethic that a parser-generator was not
> done until it could parse the language it was written in? That a
> Real Programming Language was not done until it could compile
> itself? :)

Coming from a background in Fortran compiler development, that always struck
me as a charming myth kept alive by people in other fields.

kinda-like-the-myth-that-rocket-scientists-are-smart<wink>-ly
    y'rs  - tim