2/18    When you need to parse something simple do you usually use (f)lex/yacc
        or just write a recursive-descent parser? I've done both in the past,
        but I can't seem to justify using one approach over the other.
        \_ the point of yacc is so that you can write a grammar for it so that
           when things change you don't have to spend a lot of time
           rewriting your hand-written C/Java recursive-descent parser. For
	...

12/20   Has anyone used the parser generator JavaCC?  Is it just me, or is
        it completely awful?
        \_ what do you need it for? If you need to use the visitor and
           traverse the syntax tree, I recommend JTB, available here
           http://compilers.cs.ucla.edu/jtb  It is built on top of
           javacc and generates visitors that you can extend functionalities
	...

5/21    I was not a CS major and never took the compiler class.  What is
        a good book to help me write a compiler?  And what about interpreter?
        Do they basically involve the same issues except code generation and
        optimization?
        \_ Use the book by Robert Mak, called "Writing Interpreters and
           Compilers in C++." It's a practical, hands-on "lab" type book which
	...

5/12    Are there any emacs modes for .l files (lex) and .y files (yacc)?  I'm
        running emacs20.  Thanks.
        \_ just use c-mode or c++-mode.
	...

5/6     I've been out of school for too long.  If I want to write a simple
        compiler, what tools do I need besides yacc and what do they do?
        Thanks a bunch!
        \_ well there's also lex (flex) for the lexical analyzer (tokenizing).
        \_ java or c? if c, lex/flex=good tokenizer. yacc/bison are great
           for grammar. both are LALR so they're pretty powerful.
	...

6/25    When yacc man page refers to "LR(1) parser", is LR(1) a reference to
        some other man page or does LR(1) have some other special meaning?
                -clueless
        \_ some other special meaning, LR(1) is a style of parse tree
           generation that has certain limitatations.  Sort of like how
           reg exps can't search for all the things you want to search for
	...

7/16    Dear motd, is it true that the gnu implementation of C++ lacks
        <sstream>?  What gives?
        \_ see below on the bit on ali.  C++?  who cares.
           \_ what should we care about, java? eiffel? mh?
           \_ what should we care about, java? eiffel? ml?
              \_ Ocaml.
	...

12/14   I totally don't see any relevance in teaching Lambda calculus in an
        undergrad course to describe stupid semantic rules. Fuck Aiken and
        his stupid ambiguous exams!!!
              researcher)
           \_ usually to emphasize its distinction from an algebra.  keep
              in mind that "the calculus" taught in high school is
	...

8/13    Is there such a thing as an algorithm that can output another
        algorithm? Kind of like self tuning, self evolving algorithm?
        \_ Yes. Not as glamorous as it sounds; see also: genetic algorithms,
           Remez algorithms, data-directed programming
        \_ bison, yacc, (f)lex, and many many more. not self tuning though.
        \_ There are algorithmns that can learn from data.  It's really not
	...

5/20    When I need an spec/interface/extension language, I use
        0 my own language and lex+yacc
        1 my own language and my own lexer/parser
        <number value="0"/> XML
        2 scheme
        1 PROLOG!!!
	...

1/18    Wanted 2 programmers to help develop web based apps:  Between the
        two, will need PERL, CGI, SQL, Yacc(or Bison), Javascript, HTML.
        Full time or Part time (20 hours minimum).  At least two weeks(tm)
        with possibilities of more if appropriate.  Work on-site (downTown
        Oakland)  or off-site. (510) 271-4142 ask for Garo, Alan or Ephram.
        -gargamel
	...

7/11    Since bison/yacc/(f)lex all act like state machines is there any way
        to implement a program with multiple context parsers (eg. a
        multithreaded network deamon that needs to parse an input)?
        \_ This problem is even worse in OpenGL that employ specialized
           rendering hardware since the GL libraries act on the state of
           the video card.  In other words, there's only one rendering
	...

3/25    It's strange that only every other Windows version is a hit.
        NT 4.0: hit
        2000:   flop
        XP:     hit
        Vista:  flop
        7:      hit
	...

8/18    Hi again, new freebsd guy here again, in bash I was able to go
        LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/foo/lib ./runmyapp
        I managed to do this in tcsh by using setenv in a shell script
        that setenv's the lib path and then executes $1, just wondering
        if there was a way to do it in 1 line from the cmd line as in bash?
        Thanks, btw %2c or %3c worked.  Freebsd, tcsh and vi forever!
	...

7/24    Is dos2unix available somewhere?  Someone added all those Ctrl-M's to
        motd.public.
        \_ %s/^V^M//g in vim. What has your editor done for you today?
           \_ that works great in vi actually... in vim :set filetype=unix
	...

12/2    Article 1, Section 6
        No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was
        elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the
        United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof
        shall have been encreased during such time
        \_ Stop stomping my changes.
	...

9/22    Gmail's "conversation feature" drives me nuts! Is there a way to
        disable that and make Gmail act like every other e-mail client on the
        planet? WTF thought this was a nice thing to have on by default?
        \_ Umm, why don't you just use another email service then...
           \_ Umm, I do, which is how I have something to compare to. I get
              mail in at least 4 places only one of which is Gmail. I
	...

6/12    Does emacs or vi include a column paste?  I sometimes have a block
        text I want to insert horizntally next to another block/column.  This
        is common for data plotting etc.  In Microsoft Word has this, I need
        it in a Unix text editor.
        \_ Does M-x picture-mode in emacs work for you?
           \_ Yes, with the commands below, thanks.
	...

2/21    Why don't people respect the lock on the motd put on by vi or
        emacs? Are they that paranoid about kchang's motd watching program?
        Is anyone still using motdedit?
        \_ hey I still use it.  Some people don't though.  some sneaky folks
           edit a copy of the motd offline and put it in place, not caring how
           much they stomp on others' changes that might have happened in the
	...

11/13   If I have a application on machine foo sending data really fast to
        an application on machine bar via TCP, and the bar applications job
        is write that to disk as fast as possible, what happens if the
        network stream is faster than the disk writes?
        \_ Look up the differences between TCP/IP flow control and
           congestion control. The answer is in front of you.
	...