A Portable Lexical Analyzer Writing System

Abstract

LAWS, a lexical analyzer writing system implemented in FORTRAN, attempts to achieve a compromise between the contradictory demands of efficiency and portability. Simplicity is emphasized to make extension and modification easy. LAWS is a compiler for generating state transition tables and a finite state machine (FSM) directed by those tables. The language (STATE-DEF) used to program the FSM resembles Floyd-Evans Production Language. A program written in STATE-DEF, the resulting state transition table, and a flow chart of the FSM are given. Of special interest are the methods for keeping tables small and automatically translating character codes.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 1973
Accession Number
AD0784960

Entities

People

  • Robert C. Gammill

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Analyzers
  • Assembly Languages
  • Automatic Programming
  • Compilers
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Construction
  • Control Systems
  • Efficiency
  • Language
  • Machine Languages
  • Machines
  • New York
  • Personality
  • Production
  • Sequences
  • Transitions

Readers

  • Computational Linguistics
  • Educational Psychology
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics